What is the queer justice index (QJI)?

The Queer Justice Index is an analysis and visual presentation of the correlational relationships between LGBTQ+ inequality and political corruption in countries across Europe. Incorporating data from ILGA’s Rainbow Europe Index (REI) and Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI)*.

Previous research has found a positive relationship between the Rainbow Europe Index and GDP per capita, the Human Development Index, the Corruption Index, and the Index of Happiness. Calculations have shown that the Rainbow Europe Index has a significant impact on these indicators (Shapoval, 2021). We wanted to expand on these findings by mapping correlations of 2023 and 2024 data on perceived corruption and LGBTQ+ welfare. We hypothesised that countries which demonstrated higher levels of LGBTQ+ acceptance (on social, political and legislative grounds) would also rank lower for perceived governmental political corruption. Our hypothesis was grounded in emerging discourse around how nationalistic arguments are used to obfuscate political corruption- and how ‘homophobic nationalism’ serves to ostracise and ‘other’ gender and sexuality diverse individuals. This utilisation of nationalistic narratives to disguise corruption is well-explained in a 2023 article by The Economist: 

“Whereas nationalism was once a means to dismantle deplorable colonial empires, it is increasingly becoming a device to remove legitimate constraints on government power. Leaders who chafe at checks and balances need a pretext to scrap them. They cannot admit that they want to muzzle the press and purge the courts because they find it irksome to follow the rules and would prefer to rule with unfettered authority. So they accuse journalists and judges of being traitors, or agents of foreign powers.” (The Economist, 2023)

Building upon this further, we can hypothesise how anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment may be weaponized to further the aims of a nationalistic social movement- where marginalised individuals are positioned as an enemy of ‘traditional’ morals and ethics. As stated in Why Do States Repress Sexual Minorities? Legitimacy, Diversionary Homophobic Nationalism, and Anti-Westernism, Dr Namig Abbasov writes the following:

“Instilling homophobic elements into nationalist diversionary tactics makes these tactics more appealing to broader society where traditional family values and normative homosexuality is blended with national identity.” (Abbasov, 2022)

Through this, we can come to understand the benefits of homophobic, transphobic and queerphobic sentiment and legislation within a government and its wider society. Through the labelling of an individual or collective as an opponent to traditional values or national identity, it becomes easier to disavow their criticisms of the state, deny them access to resources or welfare and even strip them of their power to vote under the criminalisation of their gender expression or private sexual behaviour. Furthermore, individuals whose bodies can not be used to produce (and reproduce) new and law-abiding citizens of the state (due to sexual orientation or gender reassignment) become significantly less valuable property of the state. As has been argued in Reproducing the State by Jacqueline Stevens (1999), political kinship begins in the kinship of the home. The creation of state-compliant citizens is essential for the longevity of the state. 

Methodology

Our hypothesis for this pilot study is that a correlation exists between the perceived corruption of a country, and LGBTQ+ inequality.

To test this hypothesis we downloaded the publicly available Corruption Perception Index (CPI) dataset, made available by Transparency International (TI), and the Rainbow Europe Index (REI) by the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).

The CPI is a measure of perception of corruption based on multiple different studies performed by experts and business executives around the world. The 2023 CPI uses 13 different sources. These sources are normalised, weighted and combined into a single CPI score. However, these sources are—at least to some extent—based on the subjective opinions of well-informed experts. Perceptions change slowly and may not always accurately reflect the reality of the situation in a country. In spite of this, the CPI is a well-respected and oft-cited measure of corruption in countries around the globe.

The REI assesses inequality according to 73 features spread across 7 different categories which generally relate to the legal status and protection afforded to LGBTQ+ individuals. While the weighting of these features may be somewhat subjective, the presence or absence of legal protections is reasonably indisputable. Therefore, the REI can adapt more rapidly to emerging societal changes than CPI.

The ILGA has computed REI for 49 countries around Europe and Eurasia. TI have calculated CPI for 181 countries globally.

In this study, we used REI data for 2023 and 2024 and CPI data for 2023 (to date, a 2024 CPI is not available).

Checking for a relationship between CPI and REI was done by computing the Pearson Correlation Coefficient between CPI and REI. Four countries were removed from the study due to the absence of a CPI score—Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and San Marino. The correlation coefficient was calculated over the remaining 45 countries.

It is also interesting to consider the agreement between REI and CPI on a case-by-case basis i.e. which countries demonstrate both low levels of corruption and high levels of equality, and vice versa. To wit we propose the Queer Justice Index, which is calculated as the harmonic mean between REI and CPI for a given country.

The intuition behind the use of the harmonic mean is that the QJI should be an overall measure of justice and safety for LGBTQ+ people. This is based both on the corruption they may experience as visitors or citizens of a country, and direct persecution they may experience due to their gender and/or sexuality. A high CPI score should not compensate for a low REI score and vice versa. Injustice is injustice. The possibility that a country may be just according to one measure should not compensate for the injustices indicated by another.

The harmonic mean provides a combination of two values which penalises large differences between the scores involved, favouring the lower of the two values and was therefore deemed an appropriate method of combining CPI and REI into a single measure of justice.

This suggests that countries which exhibit high levels of corruption often also provide poor legal and societal protections for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Investigating this possibility would require a more in-depth study to determine whether the relationship between REI and CPI is causal.

Although our findings suggest a strong correlation between LGBTQ+ inequality and perceived governmental corruption, some interesting outliers may be noted.

Malta has the highest REI score of any European country (REI=0.8784), indicating strong support for the LGBTQ+ community. However, it also has one of the lowest CPI scores for countries covered by this study (CPI=0.51)—not even in the top 50th percentile of countries covered by this study.  Computing the QJI for Malta yields a value of 0.6453, placing it in the top 30th percentile.

Switzerland is rated extremely well for corruption with a CPI of 0.82, placing it in joint 4th position on the list of least corrupt countries alongside Sweden, but only obtains an REI score of 0.5035, placing it in the top 40th percentile. The QJI (0.6239) puts Switzerland in the top 35th percentile of European countries. Similar results can be seen for Austria and the United Kingdom.

Lithuania and Latvia both score moderately well according to the CPI (0.61 and 0.57 respectively) but perform abysmally according to the REI (0.2761 and 0.2397 respectively). The QJI places both these countries in the bottom 40th percentile (0.3801 and 0.3425 respectively).

According to the QJI, the top three European countries for justice are Denmark, Finland, and Iceland, while Russia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey rank in the bottom three. A full list of scores has been visualised on the QJI map available on the /Queer website.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, there is a need for further research to explore the relationship between political corruption and LGBTQ+ welfare and equity. However, we believe these findings indicate a remarkable correlation which supports the arguments of previous scholars in this field; that fairness, inclusion and justice in politics lead to fairness, inclusion and justice in wider society.

Due to the availability of ILGA’s Rainbow Europe Index data, our current findings are limited to the European continent; however, we are committed to expanding the scope of this project to a global scale in the near future. 

If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@slashqueer.com.

Lead researchers: 

Dr Gary Munnelly (Trinity College Dublin)

Georgie Williams (/Queer)

Bibliography

Abbasov, N. (2022). Why Do States Repress Sexual Minorities? Legitimacy, Diversionary Homophobic Nationalism, and Anti-Westernism (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University).

Shapoval, V. Y. (2021). How discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community affects migration and socio-economic development of countries in the world.

Stevens, J. (1999). Reproducing the state. Princeton University Press.
The Economist. (2023, August 31). How cynical leaders are whipping up nationalism to win and abuse power. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/08/31/how-cynical-leaders-are-whipping-up-nationalism-to-win-and-abuse-power

*For more information on weightings and analyses of ILGA and Transparency International’s individual datasets, please visit their respective websites.