Come Out 2019

The 2019 European Parliament elections come in an increasingly polarised social and political climate. Human rights, in particular, the human rights of LGBTI people, are facing a forceful challenge.

ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Europe Map has shown much progress in the legal and policy situation for LGBTI people across Europe in recent decades. However, increasingly, progress in some places has been accompanied by regression in others, and the strongest trend has been that of stagnation, providing fertile ground for backlash and backsliding. The current context makes it ever more important to openly “Come Out” in support of the human rights of LGBTI people, and proactively seek opportunities to ensure their protection.

The Come Out Pledge 2019

Candidates for the European Parliament, pledge to stand up for the human rights and equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people in the European Union and beyond, and will do so by working to:

Strengthen protection in EU law and policy
Ensure an enabling environment for LGBTI human rights defenders
Be an ally to under-represented voices
Ensure EU leadership on LGBTI rights
Harness the power of my position

Come Out Pledge Download

Come Out to Vote

Come out to vote on May 23-26! Find out whether you need to register, how to do so and how the elections work at www.european-elections.eu.

Health4LGBTI: Reducing health inequalities experienced by LGBTI people

Health4LGBTI is an EU funded pilot project aiming at reducing health inequalities experienced by LGBTI people. It has been implemented between March 2016 and March 2018.

ILGA-Europe was part of the Consortium that under a service contract with the European Commission has explored the health needs and challenges faced by LGBTI people and analysed the key barriers faced by health professionals when providing care for LGBTI people.

General information about the project

The aims of the Health4LGBTI pilot project are to raise awareness of the specific health inequalities and barriers experienced by LGBTI people and to increase understanding of how best to reduce them; focusing on overlapping inequalities stemming from discrimination and unfair treatment on other grounds. The project also aims to provide European health professionals with relevant tools to allow them to develop the right skills and knowledge to overcome these barriers.

The other Consortium partners include AOUI-Verona (Italy, project coordinator), University of Brighton (UK), the National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene (Poland) and EuroHealthNet.

For more information, visit the European Commission’s website page about the project.

Project activities

The project explored some of the particular health needs and challenges faced by LGBTI people and analysed the key barriers faced by health professionals when providing care. A variety of activities took place including:

A state-of-the-art study of the health inequalities experienced by LGBTI people and the barriers faced by health professionals in providing healthcare for LGBTI people;
12 focus group studies (2 focus groups in each of the 6 participating EU Member States: Poland, Italy, UK, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Lithuania) to map the barriers faced both by LGBTI people and health professionals;
The development of a modular training course aimed at increasing the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of healthcare professionals when providing care for LGBTI people;
The piloting of the training course in the same Member States where the focus groups were conducted, in order to fine-tune and finalise the modules;
A final European conference, which was part of the dissemination efforts to raise awareness of the topic and of the training course in particular.

Key findings

Although situations vary across Member States, the state-of-the-art study and focus group studies confirmed the existence of health inequalities, barriers, and discrimination LGBTI people experience that have an impact on their health outcomes. Key findings included:

1. Root causes likely to contribute to the health inequalities of LGBTI people are:

prevailing cultural and social norms that assume people are non-LGBTI by default;
minority stress associated with an individual’s LGBTI identity;
victimisation;
discrimination (individual and institutional), and;
stigma.

2. LGBTI people face significant mental and physical health inequalities and are at higher risk of poor mental health compared to the general population, including higher incidence of suicidal thoughts, substance misuse, anxiety, and deliberate self-harm.

3. LGBTI people face barriers when accessing healthcare, the most significant ones are:

prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behaviour of healthcare staff compounded by their use of heteronormative language and documentation;
fear surrounding the disclosure of their gender identity, sexual orientation, or sex characteristics;
lack of consistency and continuity in the care provided to LGBTI people;
lack of knowledge and recognition of the specific health needs of LGBTI people;
implicit and explicit LGBTI-phobia where LGBTI people report being denied access to health services due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics.

4. Many health professionals lack knowledge and cultural competence around the lives and healthcare needs of LGBTI people. Medical literature regarding the health of LGBTI people needs to be updated and health professionals’ assumptions should be questioned such as assuming that people are non-LGBTI by default; that being LGBTI is not relevant for healthcare providers; and beliefs that LGBTI people do not experience significant discrimination.

5. All groups within LGBTI communities (and particularly bisexual, trans, and intersex people) encounter their own specific barriers, and healthcare professionals’ knowledge of these groups is limited.

6. Although scarce, examples of promising practice meeting the needs of LGBTI people do exist. The state-of-the-art study revealed significant gaps in research. For example, there is very limited research to understand the general health profile of trans and intersex people, their experiences, as well as their physical and mental health needs. Similarly, further research adopting an intersectional perspective on health inequalities experienced by LGBTI people is required.

Training course

Findings from the state-of-the-art study and focus group studies were used to develop a dedicated training course for healthcare professionals aiming to increase their skills, knowledge and competences when providing care for LGBTI people. The course, comprising four training modules, is aimed at all health professionals regardless of their specialisation or experience of working with LGBTI people, and can include administrative staff (or similar) working in health settings.

The training modules were piloted in the same countries as the focus group studies, and fine-tuned based on feedback. The training is formulated in such a way as to facilitate replication on a large scale in many different European countries.

The training package can be downloaded here.

Training medical professionals on LGBTI inclusive practices works!

Published in December 2019, this paper describes the training methods and impacts of the #Health4LGBTI research project to develop training materials for healthcare providers. Results indicate that training participants increased their understanding, sensitivity, and empathy with LGBTI people seeking healthcare across all sites for the training.

Read here the paper.

Q&A with Mental Health Europe

As part of our Come Out for Mental Health campaign, we spoke to our friends at Mental Health Europe about some of the challenges that LGBTI people face and how that can affect their mental health.

Good practices: TENI

Thank you to TENI (Ireland) for sharing your good practices with us as part of the Come Out for Mental Health campaign!

“Our work on mental health has lots of different elements. When I think about TENI’s work with policymakers, it reminds me of the scaffolding you see when a house is being built. It’s not the finished product, but it is work that will provide a structure for future activities, work that is designed to have long-lasting positive effects.

All the ongoing training and conversations happening between TENI and policymakers, healthcare professionals or teachers might not be the most visible element of our work – but it does result in guidelines and increased understanding. It is positive that TENI have a good working relationship with the Health Service Executive (HSE – Ireland’s health service), School Managerial Boards, researchers and other key people and organisations that can facilitate the needs of the trans community. Tools like guidelines for general practitioners (GP’s) are what will make a huge difference to trans people, considering that trans people often experience anxiety when presenting at these services.

TENI are also very excited to be partnering with HSE to deliver Gender Identity Skills Training (GIST) which is due to begin soon. GIST will be evaluated, with the aim of offering this training to all healthcare providers in all regions of the Republic of Ireland.

TENI also provided training for staff in 47 post-primary schools and 17 primary schools in the the Republic of Ireland in 2016/2017 school year. In many ways, we are living in a different Ireland now… and that can only be a good thing for the mental health of trans people.”

– Vanessa Lacey, TENI Health & Education Manager, in conversation with Come Out for Mental Health

Good practices: Gayten-LGBT

Thank you to Gayten-LGBT (Serbia) for sharing your good practices with us as part of the Come Out for Mental Health campaign!

Good practices: Seta

Thank you to Seta (Finland) for sharing your good practices with us as part of the Come Out for Mental Health campaign!

Eveliina, a Finnish cross-dressing senior, found support and meaningful volunteer work as a spokesperson for Seta’s senior services.

She emphasises how important it is for mental health to be able to express one’s gender as they like in this lovely video from Seta:

Seta on inclusion, diversity and the mental health of LGBTIQ young people:

“The rainbow represents an open space for a variety of gender identities and sexual orientations but do we really embrace diversity? Young LGBTIQ people are exposed to rainbow normativity. If a young person can´t relate to certain one-sided norms (for example how LGBTIQ people should look) it may hinder or slow down the development of their identity.

We need to raise awareness about the diversity we have in our community. Peer support groups for LGBTIQ youth should establish common rules for respecting diversity. Let’s support all the shades between the colours in our rainbow!”

Come Out for Mental Health

ILGA-Europe want to come out for mental health.

#ComeOut4MentalHealth

There are a lot of reports, statistics and analysis out there on the mental health of LGBTI people… but talking about it still seems like a taboo subject.

ILGA-Europe want to remind our activists that there is so much love and potential support within the LGBTI communities. We can rely on each other when we experience mental health problems, but talking is the major first step.

Join our conversation as ILGA-Europe come out for mental health!

Blog post from Evelyne Paradis:

“Talking About LGBTI Mental Health – It Starts Now” – HuffPost UK, 10 October 2017

Pride Watch

Get involved with ILGA-Europe’s plans for Pride season!
Join in with our PrideWatch social media campaign this summer.

Freedom of assembly is vital – for all of us

In many towns and cities, Pride marches take place every summer, without disruption. However, the overall picture in Europe, both inside and outside the EU’s borders, is quite complex. The freedom of LGBTI activists to organise, gather and celebrate publicly is limited in some European countries.

Pride marches have always been a visible symbol of fundamental human rights and an indicator of how well democracy is functioning.

So, that is why ILGA-Europe will be keeping a close eye on how Prides are operating in 2018.

We will be talking to Pride organisers, participating in marches and reporting back on what we see and hear – sharing it all with you as part of the PrideWatch campaign.

Colleagues from our staff team or board members will be representing ILGA-Europe at lots of Pride events this summer. We’ll confirm soon where we will be attending, but 2017’s list looked like this:

Sofia – 10 June
Skopje – 23/26 June
Istanbul – 25 June
Madrid (World Pride) – 1 July
Budapest – 8 July
Tallinn (Baltic Pride) – 8 July
Belgrade – 15-17 September (march will take place on 17 September)
Podgorica – 23 September

How can you get involved in PrideWatch?

Support your local Pride events.
If you can’t attend a Pride, why not send messages of support and solidarity to your fellow LGBTI activists and allies?
Follow what’s happening on the ground with the hashtag #PrideWatch
Tell us what Pride means to you, by joining the #PrideWatch conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Gay vs God?

Breaking down myths about religion and identities of LGBTI people

#GayVsGod

“It’s a matter of Gay vs God.” How many times have you heard statements like this during discussions on religion and LGBTI issues? Or seen similar comments on your social media feed?

From 4 – 8 April, ILGA-Europe will be taking a look at why so many myths have been built up around this discussion. We want to break down the stereotypes around religion, belief, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Through a series of videos, personal testimonies and real life examples, our Gay vs God? campaign wants to affirm that it is not, and should never be, about ‘choosing a side’. Advocating for LGBTI equality is never about advocating against a religion or a belief.

On the contrary, we want to celebrate the fact that identifying as LGBTI and being part of a faith community are not mutually exclusive. Both are deeply personal and important parts of your identity.

We also want to open up the conversation by examining the common equality goals that both communities of activists share. We all have a lot in common – whether it’s personal incidents such as coming out to family and friends, facing harassment or discrimination at work or even having practical difficulties organising public events as an activist. We all have a lot of experience we can share with each other.

For five days, we will look at some of the most common myths and deconstruct them, hearing the voices of LGBTI activists, religious communities and LGBTI people of faith.

Many of our Gay vs God? video contributions were recorded in Brussels at the 2015 Equality for All conference, a two-day event organised jointly by ILGA-Europe and our friends at ENORB. You can read more about the event here.

We don’t want this to be a taboo subject. We want to hear your stories, your suggestions for more cooperation, your tips on how to advance equality for all. Whatever social media platform you use, we want you to get involved. Join us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Vimeo – or send us an email!

Practical steps

Silver Rainbow

What is Silver Rainbow?

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the specific needs of older LGBTI persons and to share the best resources on the topic.

How you can support Silver Rainbow:

We will be sharing videos, an animation, an infographic and lots of resources (from members and partners) on our website, through Facebook and via Twitter.

We would love you to get involved by sharing our posts, commenting on Facebook or chatting to us on Twitter using the hashtag #SilverRainbow

Fighting back against exclusion and invisibility – older people in the LGBTI movement:

Video by Stefano Ridolfi

Let older LGBTI people live healthy lives

Let older LGBTI people live healthy lives Download

Long term care

Let older LGBTI people enjoy long term care with dignity

Animation by Latte Creative

UN International Day of Older Persons 2015

Let older LGBTI people shine

Video by Stefano Ridolfi

Equality for All

The proposed Directive, if adopted, will extend the 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. This Directive would eliminate the hierarchy of rights that currently exists in the EU by giving the listed grounds the same protections guaranteed under the Race Directive.

Please read below for more information, including ILGA-Europe’s stance on the Directive and what you can do to help its passage.

In this section you can find information of the current legal situation and read examples on how this can affect the daily life of LGBT people living in the European Union.

At the moment, EU law protects people against discrimination based on sexual orientation – as well as age, disability, religion and belief – in the area of employment (Employment Framework Directive 2000/78). Unfortunately, EU law does not at present contain an explicit prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of a person’s gender identity and gender expression. Indeed, the EU treaties only entitle the EU to take action to combat “discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation” only, without mentioning trans issues. Neither does a prohibition on discrimination against trans people appear in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

In practice, this means that you are legally protected across the EU against, for example:

Being refused a job or fired because of your sexual orientation

Being harassed by colleagues at work 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 access to goods and services (including housing), social protection and social advantages, education and health care.

In practice, this means that not everyone in the EU is protected against:

Homophobic bullying in school

Refusal of medical services and treatment to openly LGBT people

Refusal to give a double room in a hotel to a same-sex couple

Refused access to social security schemes, such as survivors’ pensions and financial assistance to carers

The grounds of race and gender enjoy stronger protection in the European Union:

The 2000/43 Race Equality Directive protects against discrimination based on race and ethnic origin in all areas of life

Sex discrimination is prohibited by EU law in employment and in access to goods and services (Equal Treatment Directives 2006/54 and 2004/113). Trans people are partly covered by these instruments. More information on how trans people are covered by existing EU law can be found in the following Report ordered by the European Commission. and in the following guide published by our friends from Transgender Europe.

It is important to note that the legal protection against discrimination based on the different grounds varies from one EU country to another. All Member States have legal rules going beyond what is already required by European law, but:

discrimination on some grounds (age, disability and sexual orientation) is less covered by national laws than other grounds

national laws may prohibit discrimination for all the grounds but only in some areas of life

and there are no minimum applicable standards of non-discrimination across the EU

The proposed anti-discrimination Directive currently identifies four different grounds that will be protected from discrimination in the areas of social protection, education, and access to goods and services. The protected grounds are religion or belief, disability, age, and sexual orientation. ILGA-Europe supports this multi-ground approach for several reasons.

These grounds are the same grounds protected in the Framework Directive for equal treatment in employment and occupation (2000/78/EC). By passing a Directive that extends protection from discrimination based on these grounds in the areas of life mentioned above, the European Union brings its anti-discrimination legislation in harmony. Currently, the Race Directive protects European citizens from discrimination in all the areas of life.

Instead of having a hierarchy of rights among the different grounds that are protected in the EU, ILGA-Europe advocates for a holistic and inclusive anti-discrimination law that protects all vulnerable groups from bias in all areas of life.

ILGA-Europe supports the proposed Directive for the following reasons:

To protect against forms of discrimination that take place on a daily basis

A growing body of academic and community-based research shows that lesbian, gay and bisexual people across the EU face discrimination in access to social protection, health care and services, education, housing, goods and services, among other areas.

Legislation is an important and indispensable pre-condition to address sexual orientation discrimination, and other grounds of discrimination. Non-legislative measures are rarely effective unless they are underpinned with binding and enforceable rights, especially when dealing with forms of discrimination which are not yet “socially accepted” as legitimate.

To end a de facto hierarchy of rights at European level

The grounds of race and gender enjoy stronger protection in EU law than the grounds of sexual orientation, age, disability, religion and belief. This “hierarchy” is contrary to international obligations under human rights instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (article 26) and the European Convention on Human Rights (article 14)

This new EU directive would ensure that five grounds of discrimination are treated equally in European law. However, beyond this directive, there will be a need to fill the gap in protection against discrimination on the ground of gender which is not prohibited in education.

To harmonise protection against discrimination throughout the EU

A single comprehensive law covering age, disability, religion and belief, and sexual orientation would provide a coherent, transparent and understandable body of law with regard to non-discrimination.

It would provide legal clarity for businesses, as well as citizens. Everyone would know the minimum applicable standards of non-discrimination wherever they are.

A new law would also allow for freedom of movement of workers and employers where unequal protection may act as a disincentive to move to certain Member States.

The proposed directive adopted by the European Commission on 2 July 2008 was sent to the European Council which needs to approve it if the directive is to become EU legislation. This means that the proposed text is now up for negotiations by national governments.

This process is likely to be a challenging on since a directive related to non-discrimination (i.e. based on Article 19 of the EU Treaty) needs to be adopted unanimously, i.e. by ALL Member States.

Therefore, your help is absolutely necessary to ensure that ALL Member States support a new EU directive.

PLEASE keep the ILGA-Europe office informed about your activities and developments in your country in relation to the directive. It will help us to be coordinated in our campaign.

Lobby your government

What can you do?

We need everyone to call on their decision-makers and governments to support the horizontal directive.

This can be done by writing to your head of government or head of state (President, Prime Minister, or Chancellor) and to the minister responsible for social affairs and equal opportunities in your country to

Call on your government to support a proposal for a new Directive that covers discrimination based on sexual orientation, along with the grounds of age, disability, religion and belief, in areas outside employment.

Remind your government that there is extensive evidence of discrimination based on sexual orientation in areas outside employment

Remind your government that it has an obligation under international human rights law to ensure enjoyment of all human rights without discrimination

You can also request contact the ministry responsible for social affairs and equal opportunities and request meetings where appropriate to find out about your government’s position and to establish a dialogue with your ministry on the content of the directive. It is important to know about Member States’ concerns with the text and to be ready to discuss them if we want to reach an agreement.

Think about coalitions with your colleagues from NGOs working on other grounds of discrimination, from human rights organisations, trades unions and equality bodies.

Remember that EU Member States have made commitments which they should fulfil. For more information about States’ human rights obligations and other commitments, please refer to the following document: The Briefing Note