LGBTQI Inclusive Education Map

The highest possible score for a country is 100, and the lowest is -15. You can expand the different sections below to understand how the score was calculated for each indicator.

Indicator scores

Sexual orientation

Gender identity and expression

Sex characteristics (intersex)

No anti-bullying policy or national action plan: 0/10 | Anti-bullying policy or national action plan covering one ground of discrimination: 5/10 | Two grounds: 7.5/10 | Three grounds: 10/10

In 2023, the French government published a National Plan for Equality, Against LGBT+ Hatred and Discrimination (2023-2026). The government stated that this National Plan is part of its strong political will to deploy concrete and ambitious actions to eradicate hatred and violence in France. The Action Plan is the product of a long process of co-construction involving over a hundred partners, including national and local associations, LGBT+ centers, various ministries, corporations and independent institutions (la Commission nationale consultative des droits de l'Homme, le Défenseur des droits, l’Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique). During the elaboration of the plan, over 300 measures were put forward by civil society.

There are several key measures included in the Action Plan, including Measure 6 entitled “Better combating LGBTphobic bullying in schools”. This measure aims to better identify, better address and better prevent LGBTphobic harassment. This will be achieved by strengthening the pHARe program's (a program to combat bullying in schools) resources on preventing LGBTphobia to better train staff and student ambassadors. Adult focal points will also be put in place among the educational staff in each middle and high school. The foreseen year of implementation of this measure is 2024.

Measure 12 of the Action Plan is entitled "Training students and staff from higher education establishments under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture” and aims to better identify, address and prevent LGBTphobic acts in higher education establishments under the authority of the Ministry of Culture. This measure will be achieved by putting in place the inter-ministerial platform for training on the values of the Republic and by encouraging all education establishments to make this training available and accessible for all their staff. The foreseen year of implementation of this measure is 2026.

The Plan has however been heavily criticised by the CNCDH (Commission National Consultative des Droits de l’Homme) as it fails to provide concrete budgetary details or evaluation criteria. Moreover, LGBTQI organisations’ inputs were largely disregarded, an evaluation was not conducted before the announcement of the new version of the Plan and large amounts of measures were already present in the previous Plan (2020-2023). One question raised by the Plan is the lack of specific measures for LGBTQI people of colour, disabled LGBTQI people and trans and intersex people (see also SOS homophobie’s shadow report to the UN Human Rights Committee). At France’s examination at the Human Rights Committee, the question was raised by Anne Donders (Committee member), with the government highlighting its satisfaction with the Plan.

Sexual orientation

Gender identity and expression

Sex characteristics (intersex)

Hostile environment

Hostile school environment and no government partnership with civil society: -5/10 | There is no evidence of the government providing funding or working in partnership with civil society: 0/10 | The government provides funding and works in partnership with civil society to promote inclusive education for one ground of discrimination: 5/10 | Two grounds: 7.5/10 | Three grounds: 10/10

Between 2020 and 2024, SOS homophobie documented an increase in the number of anti-LGBTQI hate crimes, including in schools, with 94 cases of anti-LGBTQI incidents documented in school environments in 2023 alone.

The French authorities have emphasised their determination to defend the values and principles of the Republic and to combat homophobic remarks or behaviour in schools. This is reflected in the internal rules and regulations of each school, Despite this, ECRI has noted that bullying remains a widespread and serious problem, as evidenced by the cases of school-related suicide recorded. According to a survey conducted in 2019, LGBT students are particularly exposed to discrimination by other students (28%) or teachers (19%) as well as to verbal (20%) or physical (13%) aggression at school.

In 2023, Lucas, a 13-year-old boy, who had been targeted by homophobic bullying, committed suicide in January. Four students were convicted of school harassment in the case. The family appealed the decision as it failed to condemn the minors for harassment leading to suicide. Media reports suggest the official investigation was inadequately conducted. In the same year, teachers also reported a Catholic school and its principal for homophobia and censoring films on abortion and queerness. The Prosecutor launched an investigation. Bretagne announced setting up an observatory for the prevention and fight against LGBT + discrimination in education. In September 2023, a high school student was arrested after bullying and threatening to kill a 14-year-old trans student. Minister Gabriel Attal declared that preventing bullying at schools was his “absolute priority”.

In 2022, President Macron said that it was too early to teach students about SOGI issues in primary school. A few weeks later, he backtracked and declared support for educational programs and CSOs.

In 2021 a 14-year-old girl committed suicide after two years of lesbophobic and islamophobic bullying. The principal in a Lyon school was found to have discriminated against a teacher when ordering her to take off her rainbow COVID-19 face mask. The Ministry of Education also banned the use of inclusive writing in schools.

In 2020 two young trans people people committed suicide due to school bullying.

The French government provides funding and actively works in partnership with NGOs in relation to education. This includes support for initiatives aimed at fostering inclusive educational environments and promoting the rights and well-being of LGBTQI learners.

Legal gender recognition without self-determination

Legal gender recognition with self-determination (over 16)

Legal gender recognition with self-determination (under 16)

No gender recognition provisions: 0/10 | There are laws and provisions, but with legal/medical/psychological approval: 5/10 | There are laws for self-determination, but only for those over 16 years of age: 7,5/10 | There are laws on gender self-determination, including those under 16 years of age: 10/10

Legal gender recognition procedures are in place, but involve a court proceeding. The process is not based on self-determination and the person who wants to change their gender marker has to demonstrate that the gender on their personal records does not correspond to that of their social life. Therefore, although LGR is not conditional upon abusive requirements on paper, practice is inconsistent.

ECRI has called on the French authorities to reconsider the option of partial dejudicialisation of LGR procedures and has emphasised the importance of developing rapid, transparent and accessible procedures enabling transgender persons to change their registered gender.

LGR is available to those over 18 as well as, in theory, to ‘emancipated minors’, but there are no documented cases of minors having successfully changed their gender marker. Name change is possible without age limitation and is consistent in practice. It does however need the consent of the minor’s parents or legal guardians.

In 2019, the Ministry of Education published a guide for teachers in middle school and high school, establishing that refusing to use a trans person’s chosen name and/or pronouns amounts to discrimination based on GIGE. It does however also set out that a trans minor’s chosen name must be agreed upon by the parents. In the case of higher education, more than a dozen universities already applied this practice at the time. In 2018 for instance, students successfully lobbied the University of Caen to do so.

The 2020 National Action Plan included this practice in its list of measures, alongside an official guide for the inclusion of trans students which was published in September 2021. One concern raised by NGOs with regards to this guide is around schools requiring parental consent for this work. This document was also challenged and instrumentalised by some political parties.

ECRI has welcomed as a good practice the general use of the preferred first name in higher education and calls on the French authorities to take further steps to ensure this practice is effectively extended to all levels of the administration.

View the map scored by indicator

Grounds of discrimination

Here is the country's score for each ground of discrimination on which we based our observations for 8 of the 10 indicators presented above.

Sexual orientation

Gender identity and expression

Sex characteristics (intersex)

See the map scored by ground of discrimination

Country score evolution

2025

/100

2022

62.5

/100

2018

/100

To enable a meaningful comparison of country progress over time, we have retroactively aligned the scoring systems used in the 2018 and 2022 Editions of IGLYO’s LGBTQI Inclusive Education Index with the updated 2025 scoring criteria. While each edition of the research has built on the previous one, reflecting evolving standards and priorities in inclusive education, minor changes to indicators and scoring weights were introduced in 2022 and 2025 to improve clarity, consistency, and comprehensiveness.
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By recalculating the earlier scores according to the 2025 framework, we have tried to ensure comparability across all three editions and provide a more accurate picture of progress, stagnation, or regression in each country’s approach to LGBTQI-inclusive education. For this reason, you might find some scores in the PDF Report & Index 2018 and 2022 differing from those on the Education website for these two years.

Good practices

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/100

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YEAR

/100

2022

Europe Average

30.6

/100

European Union Average

41.6

/100