International Day against Homophobia
Today, the Italian media are wearing rainbow colours to pay their tribute to a date chosen to commemorate a historic decision: on 17 May 1990, the World Health Organisation ruled that homosexuality be definitively removed from the classification of mental illnesses.
First celebrated on 17 May 2005 and currently observed in over 130 countries, it was officially established at European level on 26 April 2007 with the relevant resolution of the Parliament.
Italy that failed to approve the Zan DDL, although it was a one-sided and inadequate measure (as written today Dario Accolla on Valigia Blu ), and other minimum protection instruments, ranks last in the annual report Rainbow Europe published by Ilga Europe :
- 26th out of 27 countries for equality e non-discrimination
- 33rd out of 49 countries regarding protections and progress towards the Lgbtq+ community, with just 24.76% on a scale of 0 to 100
- 20th out of 24 countries for the legal recognition of rainbow families
- last with regard to hate speech, having no law against homotranssphobia
While there are numerous incidents of discrimination and homolesbobitransphobic violence (here a non-exhaustive list) and discuss further mutilations to the Zan DDL, our trust in national institutions falls and a resolution at European level seems more likely, especially after Europe has declared itself LGBTIQ Freedom Zone blocking EU funds to the infamous ‘‘LGBTIQ-free zones’ Polish.
The EU Council press release yesterday stated that
On the occasion of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT), the European Union reaffirms its firm commitment to respect, protect and realise the full and equal exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.
The European Union stands by all LGBTI people and will not compromise. We will continue to defend the human rights of LGBTI people. We will fight discrimination, violence and hate speech based on sexual orientation and gender identity - in times of peace and in times of conflict. We will continue our efforts to promote legal, political and financial measures to combat discrimination, in cooperation with civil society.
Equality, respect for dignity and respect for diversity are core values of the European Union
Nevertheless, European anti-discrimination strategies risk being “empty policies” if national governments do not take a step forward, civil society representatives warned.
The European situation is very fragmented: many countries have introduced some kind of anti-discrimination legislation, others have no legal framework prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people. Very few countries have adopted horizontal anti-discrimination laws to protect LGBTQIA+ people in all spheres of life.
The European Union has introduced a anti-discrimination directiveand that includes sexual orientation. However, this directive only prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the area of employment.
In 2008, the European Commission proposed a directive banning discrimination on grounds of age, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation in all areas of EU competence and aiming to implement the principle of equal treatment in EU law.
Currently, European citizens are protected from discrimination in most areas, including employment, healthcare, housing and education, but only on the basis of ethnic background, through the Race Equality Directive (RED).
The anti-discrimination directive would have extended this protection to discrimination based on religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation, which are currently only covered when it comes to employment.
However, not all 27 Council member states approved it and the draft was blocked.
“The main problem is unanimity. It is one of the few areas where we need unanimity for every legal act we propose,” said Szabolcs Schmidt, head of the non-discrimination and Roma coordination unit at the European Commission.
Unfortunately, EU law does not currently contain an explicit prohibition of discrimination on the basis of a person's gender identity and gender expression. Indeed, the EU treaties only authorise the Union to act to combat “discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation”, without mentioning trans issues. Nor does the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights contain a ban on discrimination against trans people.
In practice, this means that throughout the EU you are legally protected against, for example
- being refused a job or fired because of one's sexual orientation
- being harassed by work colleagues because you are gay or lesbian.
However, European legislation does not protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation, age, disability, religion and belief, in other areas of life such as access to goods and services (including housing), social protection and social advantages, education and health care.
In practice, this means that not all EU citizens are protected against:
- Homophobic bullying at school
- Refusal of services and medical care to declared LGBTQIA+ persons
- Refusal to rent a house or a double room in a hotel to a same-sex couple
- Refusal of access to social security schemes, such as survivors' pensions and financial assistance to carers.
Ethnic and gender grounds enjoy stronger protection in the European Union:
- The Racial Equality Directive 2000/43 protects against discrimination based on race and ethnic origin in all areas of life.
- Sex discrimination is prohibited under EU law on employment and access to goods and services (Equal Treatment Directives 2006/54 and 2004/113).
- Trans people are partly covered by these instruments, but not totally. More information on how trans people are covered by existing European legislation is available in the report commissioned by the European Commission and in the guide published by Transgender Europe.
It is important to note that legal protection against discrimination on different grounds varies across the EU. All Member States have legal standards that go beyond what is already required by European legislation, but:
discrimination on some grounds (age, disability and sexual orientation) is less covered by national laws than other grounds:
- national laws may prohibit discrimination on all grounds, but only in certain areas of life
- there are no minimum standards of non-discrimination applicable throughout the European Union.
In early September 2021, the EU announced the suspension of EUR 126 million from the REACT fund. The proposed directive, if adopted, would extend protection from discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation to the areas of social protection, education and access to goods and services. The directive would eliminate the hierarchy of rights that currently exists in the EU, giving the listed grounds the same protections as the race directive.
The approval of the directive does not only affect LGBTQIA+ people but is necessary to address the everyday discrimination suffered by many people across the EU:
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- Discrimination and bullying at school, leading to stigmatisation, social exclusion, dropping out of school and even a high suicide rate.
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- Denying same-sex couples basic rights, such as the right to visit their partner in hospital or to sleep together on holiday in a hotel.
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- People with disabilities do not receive essential information in accessible formats when they are treated in hospital.
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- The refusal of insurance policies to cover the elderly and persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities.
We read today on the European Parliament page:
In recent years, the social acceptance of LGBTIQ persons has decreased in some member states. Gaps remain in the EU legislative framework for combating discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sexual characteristics. Combating discrimination has become an integral part of the EU's internal and external policies and is the subject of several European Parliament resolutions. In response to the backwardness of LGBTIQ rights in some EU countries, notably Poland and Hungary, MEPs declared the EU an “LGBTIQ Freedom Zone”. In 2021, the Parliament “condemned in the strongest terms” the anti-LGBTIQ legislation and denounced the dismantling of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.
Another key point could be the reception of LGBTQIA+ people from Ukraine, as stated in the today's communiqué of the Council of Europe.
We wonder, therefore, whether the way out of this legislative vacuum can be solved at European level.
In the meantime, we associations and people active in the fight against discrimination will continue to fight for the protections and rights of all, everyone and everyone.
