Lgbt Community In The Europe

LGBT community in the Europe

The LGBT collective is a community that is formed by those who do not identify with the social roles called "heteronormative", either by their gender, their gender identity or their sexuality. That is, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, transsexual people … Due to their condition, these people have been the subject of discrimination, abuse and vexations throughout history. The group was associated with poverty, crime, drugs, prostitution …

The movement for the fight in favor of LGBT rights began in 1969 after the riots that occurred in Stone Wall Inn, a new york bar usually frequented by people from the collective, which after that police raid that ended in contest began the first mobilizations and the creation of activist organizations that defended their rights. The organizations today continue to mobilize and there are already 28 countries that recognize gay marriage, 14 of them belonging to the European Union. On the contrary, there are still countries in which being homosexual is punished with death penalty.

The objective of this work is to know how much protection the LGBT community receives from the European Union, what measures there are the planned road map … I think it is very important due to the boom experienced by the ultra-right-right parties in Europe that raise Homophobic speeches, as in Hungary and Poland (where they currently govern), among others, since among their measures is to eradicate the laws whose objective is the protection of this group.

Situation of LGBT people in the European Union

In the European Union live approximately around 513 million people, of which 6% (30780) are identified as LGBT. These data are not exact since it is truly complicated to be able to count exactly because although it is considered in a way as "accepted" identifying you as homosexual still has negative repercussions in some countries.

Although there is unanimity between the member states of the European Union in some legislative aspects on the rights of LGTB people marked by the institutions of the Union, the truth is that there are quite evident differences depending on the country in which we place ourselves. For example, Spain is one of the most advanced countries in the Union in this area. Since 1979 homosexuality ceased to be illegal and since 2005 marriages between people of the same sex are allowed. In 2013 it was considered the most "gay-friendly" country in the world. However, the country of the Union in which it currently has a better legislation in matters of homosexuality and where it is more accepted is malt, followed by Belgium and Luxembourg. However, the situation is very different in other Member States such as in Poland where homosexual marriage is not allowed, there are no family policies in favor of the collective or receive protection of hate speeches. Other countries where the situation is similar are Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine … that are in the lowest positions in terms of existence of legislation on LGBT people.

However, even with all the legislation and measures taken by both national institutions and those of the European Union, the LGBT community continues much remains to be done and that we must continue promoting equality and non -discrimination for any reason.

The European Human Rights Agency (FR) made a macro-report between April 2, 2012 and July 25 of the same year. More than 93.000 people who declared LGTB who lived in countries of the European Union and in Croatia were asked about the aforementioned issues. The survey showed the following data that are truly interesting.

In the last year, 47% of the total respondents said they had suffered discrimination and harassment. It is important to see the differences between the different countries. Although, the Netherlands has the lowest percentage (30%), Lithuania is 61%. There are also differences between the collective sectors, since there were a greater number of lesbian women who felt harassed and discriminated, followed by bisexual women and transgender people.

26% of the people who were surveyed were subject to physical violence due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Of those 24.180 people; 34% were transgender, 28% bisexual women followed by 25% each gay and bisexual men. When the reason for this physical violence was due to the perception of victims as members of the collective, 69% of these situations were lived in Hungary, compared to 46% that were experienced in Sweden.

In 38% of the total respondents they responded that they were almost always open in relation to their sexuality with other people and did not hesitate to identify themselves as such, while another 38% said that never or almost never talked about were declared as homosexual in front To others. People who were more open about being LGBT belonged to countries such as Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden or the United Kingdom. While those that were more closed when talking about these issues lived in countries such as Romania, Lithuania, Latvia or Cyprus.

58% of the total respondents responded that in their respective countries it was rare that the human rights of gay, lesbian and bisexual persons be respected, being respondents from Lithuania and Romania with 92% those who thought the most that their rights did not They were respected. The total 76% of the respondents responded that it was unusual that the human rights of transgender people were respected in their respective countries of origin, being 95% of the surveyed people who resided in Italy who weighed that, followed by Romania with a 90%.

As we can see, the results of this survey show that there is still a lot of margin of action in order to achieve equality that laws and measures promulg. In addition to showing gaps regarding gender, groups within the collective, showing greater vulnerability of transgender people. They also show large differences depending on the country, if the legislation is more or less advanced in these aspects.

Measures taken by the European Union

The European Union works from the European Commission in the proposal of measures to achieve an advance in equal LGBT rights from various areas, such as the workplace, educational, health, free circulation, asylum, protection against hate speeches ..

The European Union already indicates in the Treaty of Operation of the European Union, which among the objectives of the Union is to fight discrimination either by sex, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. In the same way, in its article 19, it emphasizes that with the approval of the European Parliament, the Council, unanimously, through a special legislative procedure, may adopt measures to combat discrimination due to racial, ethnic, sex reasons, convictions, Religion, sexual orientation, age or disability. Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union includes the principle of respect for minority rights and extolves values ​​such as equality. In the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in its article 21, the principle of non -discrimination is included in (among other reasons) sex and sexual orientation.

The European Union has adopted various measures, which although, are not absolutely specific to the protection of the rights of the LGBT community, if they include articles or specify in their preamble that take into account the principle of non -discrimination by reason of gender or sexual orientation.

In the workplace, for example, there is Directive 2000/78/EC, which establishes a general framework for measures for equal labor and trade, points out that in those cases in which various criteria, practices or provisions suppose a clear disadvantage for homosexuals will be considered as indirect discrimination. In the same directive it is indicated that the States must have available means so that the fulfillment of the rules established by the Directive itself can be required and establishes protection for workers who denounce these practices so that they do not lose their jobs.

Then, there is also the Directive 2012/29/EU in which the rights of crime victims are established. That is, an equal, personalized and professional treatment is established to the victims without discriminating for their gender identity, their sexuality, their sex, religion, ethnicity … For the LGBT collective this directive is very important, since homosexuals and// or transgender are usually victims of hate crimes. Therefore, that from the European Union they are recognized as victims and it is made clear that they must be respected and must receive the same treatment as the rest of the people, they are facilitated to carry out the processes to be able to denounce the crime.

In terms of asylum rights, there is Directive 2004/83/EC that regulates the minimum conditions to be met by people belonging to countries who are not members of the European Union and the stateless to be able to achieve the Statute of Refugee, in addition to explain what type of protections they achieve with it. The Directive is applied to any request that is well submitted on the border or in the territory of the State of the European Union that is. In addition, Member States have the power to approve more favorable measures than those established in the Directive to obtain the Statute of Refugee. It establishes that with the term "refugee" reference is made to that person belonging to a third country that can be persecuted for various reasons such as "belonging to a certain social group" and cannot return to their country native or residence due to the relevant fears already explained. This measure is also of the utmost importance, as I have already explained above, although much progress has been made in terms of equality of the LGBT collective, there is still much to do. While the countries of the European Union are mostly labeled as "safe countries" for homosexuals, today 26 states in which identifying as homosexual are punished with prison sentences of up to 10 years are still in the world , however, in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania and some territories of Nigeria and Somalia is punished with the death penalty. Due to the situation in these countries, there are people who decide to flee from their respective countries asking for asylum in Member States of the European Union where they know they are protected and where they can live without fear of being imprisoned or even executed for being homosexuals.

Another directive that emphasizes the rights of the LGBT community is the 2004/38/ce that reaffirms and regulates in the right to free movement and residence of citizens belonging to the Member States and their families for the territory of the Union European. It refers to the fact that no discrimination of the beneficiaries of the Directive is allowed due to circumstances related to gender, race, ethnicity, social status, political ideas or sexual orientation, among others.

On the other hand, there is the Code of Conduct of May 2016, signed by the European Commission and the main companies that work with information technology (Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube). What is about achieving this measure is to limit the scope of content that encourage hate in the platforms of the mentioned companies. These multinationals, through internal mechanisms, will try to filter the content of their platforms in order to detect that content to limit its diffusion to the maximum and that within 24 hours is maximum or eliminated or can no longer be accessed. It is important to sign this Code for the LGBT collective because it is one of the main objectives of hate speeches that spread on social networks.

The European Union, in addition to approveing ​​measures such as those we have also seen promotes acts to make visible the collective, such as the celebration of different "a PRIDS" or days of pride in different locations during the month of June. What is tried to achieve with this type of acts is to promote the normalization of the collective. At first, they began being manifestations in which governments were requested that approved measures in favor of the rights of homosexuals, but over time, as this objective has been achieved, they have become days of celebration in the That people gather, the buildings of the T institutions are decorated and illuminated with the gay flag and different manifestos in favor of the collective are read so that new measures continue to be promoted. Some of the most famous aishes in the European Union are: the Belgian Pride that has been held in the city of Brussels since 1996 or the euro pride that has been carried out in a different city every year since 1992. For example, Madrid host the European Pride in 2017, coinciding with the World Pride.

Another act supported by the European Union is the celebration of the International Day against Homophobia, Transobia and Bifobia held on May 17, since that same day in 1990, it was when the World Health Organization eliminated the homosexuality of its list of mental disorders. To commemorate that date, the Berlaymont building (houses the offices of the European Commission) is illuminated with the colors of the LGBT flag.

The European Union has created different campaigns with the objective that the youngest know the existence of the European Union. For example, one of them is #Euandme whose goal is to show young Through short-methods carried out by European film directors, it is how the issue of LGBT rights is regulated.