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EURO-LETTER
ILGA-Europe’s
monthly electronic LGBT political and legal news bulletin
No. 165
May 2009
Euro-Letter is published
by ILGA-Europe - the European
Region of the International
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender & Intersex Association (ILGA)
ISSN 1998-8117
Editor:
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issues:
all previous Euro-Letters
in English as well as the Greek translations from No 127, January 2006 are
available in pdf format on our website:
www.ilga-europe.org/europe/publications/euro_letter.
ILGA-Europe is grateful
to Pantelis Ravdas, Danae Panagiotopoulou and
Evdokia Sakka for the Greek
translations.
This publication is supported by the
Directorate-General for Employment, social affairs and equal opportunities of
the European Commission.
Its funding is provided for under the European
Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity (2007-2013). This
programme was established to financially support the implementation of the
objectives of the European Union in the employment and social affairs area, as
set out in the Social Agenda, and thereby contribute to the achievement of the
Lisbon Strategy goals in these fields.
The seven-year Programme targets all stake holders
who can help shape the development of appropriate and effective employment and
social legislation and policies, across the EU-27, EFTA-EEA and EU candidate
and pre-candidate countries.
PROGRESS mission is to strengthen the EU contribution
in support of Member States’ commitments and efforts to create more and
better jobs and to build a more cohesive society. To that effect, PROGRESS will
be instrumental in:
• providing analysis and policy advice on PROGRESS policy areas;
• monitoring and reporting on the implementation of EU legislation and
policies
in PROGRESS policy areas;
• promoting policy transfer, learning and support among Member States on
EU
objectives and priorities; and
• relaying the views of the stakeholders and society at large
For more information
see:
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/progress/index_en.html
The information contained in this publication does
not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of the European Commission.
In this issue:
ILGA-EUROPE:
·
Message from Dirk
·
Staff news: Richard
Köhler
·
Be Bothered! campaign
·
ILGA-Europe and
TGEU’s Transgender Rights & Capacity Building Seminar
- Human Rights
Commissioner of Council of Europe to conduct a study on LGBT situation
across
Europe - Lithuanian
Parliament urged to stop anti-democratic law amendments
LGBT FAMILIES:
- Greek court rules first
same-sex weddings invalid
TRANSGENDER:
France - Austrian
Administrative High Court lifts Mandatory Surgery for Transsexuals
FREEDOM OF
ASSEMBLY, EXPRESSION AND ASSOCIATION:
- LGBT festival banned in
Ukraine - "Rainbow
Flashmob" in
Russia - Various Pride events
NOTICE BOARD:
- Two calls for papers
ILGA-EUROPE
Message from Dirk
Dear Euroletter readers, ILGA-Europe members, friends
and supporters,
This month a new season of LGBT Pride events started.
Unfortunately
At the same time there are also encouraging news
– LGBT activists in
How long
The other item I would like to mention is that there
only a few days left before citizens of the European Unions will go to the polls
and vote for a new European Parliament. Our Be Bothered! campaign has already
successfully mobilised nearly 500 candidates from 24 EU member states for our
10 point Pledge. We hope that during those few remaining days more candidates
will join us and will pledge to fight discrimination and injustices. We also
hope that most of you and your friends will be active during these elections
and will vote for the candidates who support human rights and will continue
ensuring that the European Parliament is our strongest and closest ally in our
joint quest for
Dirk De Meirleir
Executive Director
ILGA-EUROPE:
Staff news: Richard
Köhler
by Maxim
Anmeghichean, ILGA-Europe’s Programmes Director
On 18th of May ILGA-Europe welcomed
Richard Köhler into its team in the newly created position of Programmes and
Policy Officer for
Richard is an experienced activist from
You can contact him at richard@... or on the
phone + 32 2 609 54 10.
Be Bothered!
campaign
by
There is only one week left before the European
Parliament Elections 2009. ILGA-Europe and its members did great a job and already
managed to get 500 MEP candidates from 24 EU Member Sates to sign
ILGA-Europe’s European Election Pledge. The signatures and the
candidates’ commitment to fight discrimination on the grounds of sexual
orientation and gender identity is just one part of our campaign. There were
numerous meetings/debates organised by ILGA-Europe’s members with the
candidates. A lot of work has been done also to mobilise voters across the EU
to take an active part in the elections and to make an informed decision on who
to vote for.
During the last week before the elections we
encourage our EU members and supporters to continue being engaged with the
candidates, to raise the issues of human rights and LGBT peoples’ rights,
and to challenge those who do not necessarily support full equality for LGBT
people.
On our campaign website you can find information on
who signed ILGA-Europe’s European Election Pledge. You can check how MEPs
voted on 7 major reports/resolutions on human rights and LGBT rights during the
last Parliament (2004-2009).
We also provide additional resources which will enable you to get better
understanding on how the Parliament works, and why it is important to vote.
Be active, be bothered, and vote! Let’s make
sure the next European Parliament remains our friend and closest ally in our
fight for equality and respect!
www.ilga-europe.org/EuropeanElections2009
ILGA-Europe and
TGEU’s Transgender Rights & Capacity Building Seminar
by ILGA-Europe’s Policy team
More than 40 participants
gathered in
The aim of this seminar was to build further capacity
amongst activists for transgender rights. The
focus of the first day was the mapping of the current state of the art with
regard to transgender issues in the EU and how TGEU, ILGA-Europe and the
activists at national level can enhance their effectiveness at local, national
and regional level. The following days were dedicated to capacity development
on how to build a strong movement advocating for the rights of trans people.
Throughout the event, several participants had an opportunity to make
presentations about the situation of trans people in their country and to share
good, and bad, practices from their organisations.
Later this year, ILGA-Europe will be holding a Trans
pre-Conference to its Annual Conference (October 2009) which will be looking at
the level of sensibility that the European Institutions place on trans human
rights.
For more information on this seminar
or ILGA-Europe’s work on the rights of transgender people, please contact
Human Rights
Commissioner of Council of Europe to conduct a study on LGBT situation across
Source: http://www.coe.int/T/dc/files/CallForTenders/apof2009ao08_en.asp
The Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe
announces a call for tenders for the project “Comparative
study on the situation concerning homophobia, transphobia and discrimination on
grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in the Council of
The aim of the tender is to provide the Commissioner for Human Rights
with a comprehensive report containing a socio-legal analysis of the situation
of lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons in the Council of
Europe member states.
If you/ your organisation/ your company wish to be consulted and have the
expertise satisfying ALL criteria specified in the document ‘’ Technical specifications
for project “Comparative study on the situation concerning homophobia,
transphobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender
identity in the Council of Europe member states”, please
indicate your interest in this call for tenders by sending an e-mail, one
page maximum, to: cdm@...
giving the following reference: 2009 AO 08. You
will then receive the document mentioned above.
The e-mail should contain:
- Your contact details (e-mail, postal address, and telephone number of person
to be contacted)
- A brief description of your organisation/ company (activity, number of staff,
locations)
- Reference to related activities in this field
To apply, your organisation or company must be based and legally registered in
one of the Council of Europe member states.
For further specific requirements, please consult the document ‘’ Technical specifications for project
“Comparative study on the situation concerning homophobia, transphobia
and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in the
Council of Europe member states”.
The deadline for submitting bids is 24
June 2009 at 2PM CET.
The tender bids may be submitted in English or French, the two working
languages of the Council of Europe.
The Council of Europe reserves the right not to contact you concerning this
call for tenders if you do not satisfy the specified criteria or fail to supply
some of the information requested.
Lithuanian
Parliament urged to stop anti-democratic law amendments
Source: media release from the European Parliament's Intergroup on LGBT rights, 14
May 2009
European
Parliament's Intergroup on gay and lesbian rights urges the Parliament of
Lithuania (Seimas) to stop the anti-democratic law amendments which would
severely impair the freedom of speech of LGBT citizens. Lithuanian government
has proposed to amend the law on protection of children and if passed, it will
criminalise public information of any kind on homosexuality or bisexuality.
"I
am shocked and dismayed that in
"International
Convention on the Rights of Child rules that States shall respect rights of a
child without discrimination of any kind. Child shall have the right to freedom
of expression, which includes freedom to receive information of all kinds. It
is peculiar that this law which is meant to protect children actually will
diminish their rights,” adds Mr. Cashman. “The European Parliament
has asked the European Commission to intervene. It is unacceptable that a
LGBT FAMILIES:
Greek court rules first same-sex weddings
invalid
Source: Reuters,
The
Civil Court of
The fact that the institution of marriage in
The two same sex couples are currently preparing
their appeal, aiming to exhaust all legal remedies in
TRANSGENDER:
by Laura Leprince, HES - Déléguée
aux Questions d'Identité de Genre
The French Health Ministry made an announcement on 16
May 2009 stating that
This classification has the advantage to provide full
medical insurance coverage (medicine and surgery) to people who are diagnosed
with gender dysphoria for a period of a minimum of 5 years. Without going into
the details, the French Health Ministry promised that a medical coverage will
be maintained.
French LGBT activists are very happy with this
governmental announcement mainly because of its strong symbolic dimension. Yet,
there are concerns too, since two months ago this same Haute Autorité de Santé
had called for a public consultation about a new health organisation and care
practises for transsexuals.
The new French proposal is similar to the
- mandatory
authorization for any doctor that would like to provide care to transsexuals,
- a national register
of transgender people (purposively to make medical study and follow up but
also to prevent trans people from changing their practitioners in case of
dissatisfaction),
- standardised medical
transition that would still not follow the Standards of Care (SOC) updated
in 2001 by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health
(WPATH) including for example a mandatory real life test without
hormones
In a country where gender reassignment and
sterilisation remain mandatory to get its papers changed, the requirement for
closer control of the French transgender population by medical centres cannot
be excluded. This will continue to exclude transgender people that would not
fit the requirement of the standard full transition path. This is also likely
to push more people to auto-medication, by closing the doors of all
practitioners that had made some move to follow at least the Standards of Care.
Austrian
Administrative High Court lifts Mandatory Surgery for Transsexuals
by Rechtskomitee
LAMBDA, 28 April 2009
As just announced the Austrian Administrative High
Court in a landmark judgment of 27 February 2009 declared mandatory sex change
surgery for transsexuals unlawful.
Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL),
Mandatory sex change surgery today is outdated and
not scientific state of the art anymore. On the contrary it is understood as a
human rights violation. So the Yogyakarta Principles, elaborated in November
2006 by leading international human-rights-experts say: “No one shall be
forced to undergo medical procedures, including sex reassignment surgery,
sterilisation or hormonal therapy, as a requirement for legal recognition of
their gender identity.”[1]
In that sense also the Council of Europe’s High
Commissioner for Human Rights in his report of 12 December 2007 asks that legal
recognition of the new gender be not made contingent upon a sex change surgery.[2]
And also the
Finally practice in
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY,
EXPRESSION AND ASSOCIATION:
LGBT
festival banned in
by
LiGA, an LGBT
organization Mykolayiv in the South of Ukraine, was prevented from holding its Rainbow Spring festival planned from 15
until 17 May to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia.
On 6 May 2009 the city authorities of Mykolayiv sent
a letter to LiGA banning any public event organised as part of the festival, on
the grounds that:
- It would have a negative
impact on the moral and spiritual atmosphere in the city
- The majority of
residents do not agree with manifestations of ‘non traditional
sexual culture’ and
- It would result in mass
civic unrest and disorder.
Ukrainian legislation on
freedom of assembly requires that those wishing to conduct a public assembly
inform the relevant authorities but does not oblige them to obtain permission.
In the given case, however the Mykolayiv city authorities acted on letters
received from other citizens without having received any notice from LIGA about
a public event. The letter was followed by the issuance of a Court summons.
LiGA attended the
On 16 May, an exhibition which was due to be held in
the Mykolayiv exhibition hall by LiGA was blockaded by members of three
protesting civil society groups. Though the police on this occasion seem to
have acted to prevent further violence and dispersed the crowd who were
blockading the exhibition space, the events (a poetry reading) had to be cancelled
and 3 photographs which featured in the exhibition had been taken. LiGA intend
to recover the photographs through Court action.
The ban violates the fundamental human rights of
freedom of expression and assembly guaranteed by the European Convention on
Human Rights. Furthermore it is contrary to the obligations contained in the
EU-Ukraine Action Plan.
ILGA-Europe has been cooperating with IGLHRC and
COC-Netherlands in drawing the attention of regional and international
institutions to the case and will continue to do its utmost to assist LiGA as
it fights the ban.
"Rainbow
Flashmob" in
by Maxim, LGBT
Network –
On Sunday, May 17 2009
LGBT activists in 40 cities all over Russia staged a so-called
"Rainbow Flashmob" dedicated to the International Day
Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
At 2pm local time
everyone was encouraged to take some multi-colored baloons and let them fly in
the sky, and then share their photos and stories on the Web .
The most crowded
flashmob happened today in St. Petersburg. About 250 people participated in it.
The march started at Ligovsky prospect, then participants wearing special
t-shirts dedicated to the flashmob went down the central street of the city,
Nevsky prospect. They handed out leaflets to people in the street along the
way.
The final stop was the
Strelka (the eastern tip of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg) - one of the
most beautiful places of the city.
There activists let
their numerous multicolored baloons fly in the sky.
Shortly after the
flashmob started, it was followed by the police patrol. But policemen couldn't
find any legitimate reason for detention, and the march went on.
"Rainbow
Flashmob" in St. Petersburg was staged by the Russian LGBT Network and
local organizations "Vykhod" (Coming out) and
"LesbiPARTYya". The motto of the flashmob was "We are not
anymore acting like we don't exist".
It's worth mentioning that the
flashmob on Sunday, May 17, 2009 was currently the
most attended public
street action event in the history of Russian LGBT movement.
Various Pride
events
by
Chisinau -
“Rainbow over the
This year’s Moldovan LGBT Pride event known as
“Rainbow over the
www.ilga-europe.org/europe/guide/country_by_country/moldova/moldova_pride_2009
The first Pride event bringing together
representatives of all three Baltic countries took part in
www.ilga-europe.org/europe/guide/country_by_country/latvia/baltic_friendship_days_2009
Moscow Pride was yet again banned by Youri Luzhkov,
the mayor of
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8053181.stm
Several hundred people marched in
http://cotidianul.ro/foto/gay_parade_in_imagini-22707.html
NOTICE BOARD:
Call for papers - LGBT Families: The new Minorities?
by Roman Kuhar
The Peace Institute (Institute for Contemporary
Social and Political Studies,
The main aim of the seminar is twofold: in the
conference part of the seminar we want to make an overall review and comparison
of the existing qualitative and quantitative data on LGBT families, primarily
in the new EU member states. We would like to invite academics and
activists to present their (sociological) research on any aspect of everyday
life of LGBT families. The topics to be addressed in the papers and presented
at the seminar are (but not limited to):
- Everyday life of LGBT families;
- Media representations of LGBT families;
- Violence, structural and other forms of discrimination towards LGBT families;
- LGBT families and school/kindergarten environment;
- LGBT families as a political issue;
- Issues related to adoption, artificial insemination etc;
- Social parenting
- LGBT families as families of choice
- Issues related to transgender families
In the workshop part of the seminar, we will organize a public round-table in
order to stimulate the debate on the legal and social position of same-sex
families, to exchange examples of good practices, to address practical problems
and issues same-sex families face in everyday life etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 10 June 2009 (max. 1.800 characters).
Please send your abstract and CV to roman.kuhar@...
Deadline for papers (for possible
publication): September 15, 2009 (max. 45.000 characters)
The seminar language is English.
Final Call for Papers on
Sexual Orientation at 2009 EOI Conference EOI
2009 Conference, 15-17
July 2009,
Stream
Call for Papers: Spirals of Silence? Tackling the 'invisibility' of the sexual
orientation strand and sexuality in academic research and in organisation
equality and diversity policy and practice
by
Fiona Colgan,
An important recent
change for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in
In addition to pointing
to the cost of discrimination to LGBT people in terms of health and quality of
working life, it has been argued that organisations which do not promote
inclusive, working and service environments are less likely to reap the rewards
of a well motivated LGBT workforce. Yet, of all the strands covered by
equality/diversity policy, sexual orientation has been described as one of the
most 'sensitive?, 'taboo?' and indeed 'invisible' areas of diversity in policy,
employment and organisation studies (Bowen and Blackmon, 2003). Research on
sexual orientation remains 'thin on the ground' at conferences and in academic
and practitioner journals. This stream will welcome theoretical, experiential,
policy based and empirical, theoretical and methodological papers from
researchers and practitioners who would like to explore themes on sexuality and
sexual orientation within organisations and equality and diversity policy and
practice so rendering work in the area 'visible?' and providing the space and
opportunity for discussion in this stream at EOI.
Abstracts (300 words)
should be submitted electronically by 15th May
2009 although late
submissions up until 9th June may be made subject to stream chair's discretion
(f.colgan@...).
Please submit papers through the EOI web site:
Paper presentations at
the conference will 30 minutes long (20 minutes presentation, 10 minutes for
discussion
Juris Lavrikovs
Communications Manager
ILGA-Europe aisbl
The European Region of the International Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Intersex Association (ILGA)
rue Belliard straat 12
tel.: + 32 2 609 54 16
mob.: + 32 496 70 83 75
skype: juris1968
fax: + 32 2 609 54 19
Equality
for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans & intersex people in Europe
Be Bothered. Vote for a human rights friendly
European Parliament!
P Please think of the
environment before printing this e-mail!
[2] https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1225149&Site=COE&BackColorInternet=DBDCF2&BackColorIntranet=FDC864&BackColorLogged=FDC864
[3] BVerfG, 1 BvL 3/03 vom 6.12.2005,
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