Netherlands

In the Netherlands, public opinion and laws about LGBTIQ people are progressive, but gaps remain. Same-sex couples can marry and adopt, and transgender people can change their legal gender markers through a process that still requires an expert letter by a medical professional, falling short of full self-determination. The Dutch government has offered compensation to individuals who underwent surgery or sterilization due to previous legal requirements for changing gender markers. Nonbinary people can choose to use the gender marker “X,” but only through a court procedure that takes three to nine months.

In July 2025, the Dutch government officially withdrew the much-debated Transgender Act. The proposed bill established a simpler administrative process for gender registration change, abolishing the mandatory expert statement from a psychologist or doctor and emphasizing self-determination. It would have allowed for the change of gender registration for young people under the age of 16 via a court procedure and with the consent of parents or a guardian. However, in December 2025, the Dutch parliament narrowly voted 77-73 to restart the debate. 

In September 2025, the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) passed a bill criminalizing certain forms of conversion practices. The bill punishes anyone who “in the exercise of an office, profession or business, or in the context of an organization, systematically or otherwise in an intrusive manner performs acts with the intention of changing or suppressing the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person.” The measure awaits its passage in the Senate (Eerste Kamer), expected in early 2026.

A tightening of the Dutch Asylum Policy in 2024 created an insidious trap for queer migrants and refugees. The new rules only permit married partners to join people with a refugee status in the Netherlands, effectively excluding same-sex couples from countries where same-sex unions are not legally recognized.

The General Equal Treatment Law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics in employment, goods and services, and education. Nonconsensual medical interventions on intersex children are not banned and still occur. In July 2025, the Netherlands modernized its penal code to reformulate protections for hate crimes. The updated law replaced “heterosexual or homosexual orientation” with “sexual orientation.” It does not address hate crimes based on gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics.

Public opinion is highly supportive—in several surveys on social acceptance of same-sex marriage, the Netherlands ranks the highest in Europe. Additionally, the Netherlands was ranked second out of 175 countries for average social acceptance of LGBTI people between 2017 and 2020. However, data from the Dutch health service indicate a decline in LGBT+ acceptance among youth. A study published in 2025 shows that the acceptance and well-being of different sexual and gender minorities vary significantly. For example, there is more understanding and acceptance of lesbian and gay people (86 percent) compared to bisexual people (66 percent), while acceptance of nonbinary people (53 percent) lags behind that of other people of queer experience. When it comes to safety and discrimination, most groups of LGBTIQ people feel unsafe more often, are more often victims of violent crime, and experience more discrimination than non-LGBTIQ people. Transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people often experience physical violence, while bisexual women face sexually transgressive behavior, as the study highlights.