Liberal City Gov't More Than Doubles LGBTQ Spending in Austria's Capital
As Vienna grapples with a record-high budget deficit, the city’s leadership is allocating increasing sums to LGBTIQ projects.
While Vienna is tightening its belt in many areas, the city leadership remains particularly generous when it comes to supporting the LGBTIQ sphere, as confirmed by the 2024 funding report.
The city’s Education and Youth Committee allocated approximately €1.04 million to LGBTIQ projects in 2024—a 158 percent increase compared to 2023.
In that year, funding amounted to just €404,000. While 23 grants were issued in 2023—albeit mostly for larger-scale projects—only 17 were granted in 2024. Maximilian Krauss, chairman of the FPÖ-Wien parliamentary group, expressed outrage in a statement to Exxpress.
“At a time when the city is facing an unprecedented budget shortfall—one that Mayor Ludwig is desperately trying to patch up with wage and fee hikes—the LGBTIQ community is receiving millions in funding. The fact that such extensive support is going to a minority group is incomprehensible and we reject it in the strongest possible terms,”
– he said, demanding that these subsidies be revoked as part of the government’s planned review of funding programmes.
Subsidies to rise further in 2025
According to the 2025 funding report, Vienna will continue to invest substantial sums in LGBTIQ projects despite general austerity measures. Q:Wien, the city’s centre for queer history, received €400,924 in 2024 (comprising €399,404 in core funding and an additional €1,520 for the “Queer Pride Walk 2024” event). This year, however, the centre is set to receive €620,000, as previously reported by Exxpress.
This funding includes support for a gay pornographic archive, the production of gender-neutral restroom signage, and the centre’s planned reopening at a new location on 11 June 2025—an event aimed at establishing it as “Austria’s first queer cultural centre.”
At the facility’s inauguration, it was stated that the City of Vienna is undertaking this investment to
“counterbalance right-wing political developments in the United States, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary that seek to once again render LGBTIQ communities invisible.”
According to Vienna’s municipal government, there are an estimated 170,000 homosexual residents in the city, representing around 10 percent of the population.
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