Six in 10 gay and lesbian Europeans avoid holding hands with same-sex partners in public, and over half of LGBTQ people in Europe are almost never open about their sexual orientations or gender identities, according to a new survey. “The overarching finding was that not much has changed and there’s a long way to go,” Miltos Pavlou, the survey’s project manager, told NBC News. “Hate and inequality remain a major challenge in our society.” “Changing laws are incredibly important first steps, but really building meaningful acceptance takes years.” The report, “A long way to go for LGBTI equality,” published by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, found that there has been “little, if any, progress during the past seven years in the way LGBT people in the EU experience their human and fundamental rights in daily life” since the first edition of the report was issued in 2012. The findings are based on a survey of 140,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in the E.U., the U.K., Serbia and North Macedonia.