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The other
side of Europe
Part 3
“Lesbians and gays,
bisexuals and transgender people live with
discrimination and exclusion throughout
Europe. Homophobic violence and disrespect
are daily events,” reports
Colin
de la Motte-Sherman in the last of
his three-part series looking at life for
LGBT people in European states. Click to see
Part 1 and
Part 2.
Macedonia
Ninoslav Mladenjovicz, a
lawyer, and (then) president of the
Macedonian Human Rights Group (CCHR), made a
point at a 2004 conference in Skopje that is
still true for many “new” and potential
members of the EU.
“On April 1st 2001
Macedonia signed the agreement for
association and stability with the EU which
called for yet another process of the
implementation of standards typical of these
Western-centred international associations.
Therefore, the recent Macedonian legislation
has been one of artificial incorporation of
prescribed, ready-made laws from the West
into the Macedonian legal system.
“As well-meaning as they
might be, these laws simply do not
reflect either the will or the awareness the
Macedonian people. If a law has been
passed in the Macedonian parliament, it does
not necessarily mean that there has been
general approval in the public of what this
law implies [. . .]”
In connection with an
advertising campaign based on money from the
US and Sweden, the then Macedonian
President, Boris Trajkovski, said,
“We have many more pressing issues that the
money could be used for. This is deeply
offensive to most people in Macedonia, which
represent a very conservative mix of the
Orthodox Christian and Muslim faiths.”
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Mosque in Skopje |
Mladenjovicz again:
“People in Macedonia find it difficult to
comprehend that homosexuality exists in
Macedonia. Since the protection of the
rights of homosexuals is rooted precisely in
those laws, which are generally believed to
have been imposed by the West, it is a
frequent standpoint that homosexuality as a
phenomenon has itself been imported for the
west [. . .] Homosexuals still live in
constant fear of humiliation, public insult
and physical attack.”
In a questionnaire
conducted by the Helsinki Foundation in
Skopje, it was found that the first major
problem is that only 48 per cent of the
population think that sex and even sexual
orientation should be talked about. When
other questions were asked, 64 per cent
considered that homosexuality is a disease.
Protective
wall
While 75 per cent thought
people should have freedom to make their own
choices – among what they considered normal,
healthy sexual orientations, not “diseases”
– 55 per cent of the people thought
homosexuals should be moved to a “Departement”
or that they, the “normal” ones, should have
a wall built around them so that they can be
“protected” from homosexuals.
The Commissioner for
Human Rights of the Council of Europe, in
the dry language of an official report,
writes:
Since same-sex
consensual relations were decriminalised
and the age of consent was made equal
for homosexual and heterosexual sex in
1996, the atmosphere and attitude
towards LGBT persons in “the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” has
improved. However, certain persisting
discriminatory attitudes exist at all
levels, and legal safeguards are
insufficient. Legal protections against
discrimination remain particularly weak.
Currently, there are limited specific
legal protection provisions available
for discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation but not on the basis
of gender identity.
The Law on
Military Service, which prohibited
homosexuals from serving, has been amended.
A recent addition to the Law on Work
Relations prohibits discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation. The LGBT
community, however, consider the terminology
used in the labour law not fully in
accordance with the term “sexual
orientation” as used by the European Court
of Human Rights.
Georgi Ivanov, while
presidential candidate of the ruling
conservative VMRO DPMNE party (he won on the
2nd round in April 2009), has said, “Our
system discriminates against no one.
Homosexuals stigmatise themselves and think
they are in an underprivileged position.”
Asked to comment on the
same issue, Ljubomir Frckoski, the candidate
backed by the main opposition party, the
Social Democrats, said he supported all
groups that faced discrimination. “In
general, I support the pluralism of
lifestyles of the subculture groups,” he
said. “This is one of the cornerstones of
today’s society.”
Deviant
lifestyle choice
Homosexuality is a taboo
subject across the largely conservative and
patriarchal societies of the Balkans, where
many people view it as a deviant lifestyle
choice or at best as a mental illness.
Sociologists say homophobia is widespread
and stems in part from preoccupation with
national identity, the idolisation of
aggressive masculinity and the revival and
increased influence of religion, which led
to, and fed from, the conflicts and unrest
of the past two decades.
The leader of the
Association for Free Sexual Orientation,
Koco Andonovski, said discrimination against
gays and lesbians was widespread in the
country, mentioning attempts to treat
homosexuality with hormone pills and banning
homosexuals from entering some bars and
cafés. Officials say that an
antidiscrimination law, one of the
preconditions for Macedonia’s EU accession,
was in the works and should be passed this
year.
Romania
“One of the major
problems in Romania . . . is that Romania is
an Orthodox country where, after the
revolution of 1989 and the end of the
communist period, a lot of people discovered
God – or think that they did – and
the Orthodox Church is very strong, very
strong,” says Vera Ceampanu of ACCEPT, a
Romanian LGBT rights organisation.
“That is why the
politicians and the members of parliament –
although Romania is not a religious
country (= theocracy) – ask for permission
from the Church when they want to pass
legislation to which they know the Church
could object.
Educational
campaigns
“For years one of the
arguments used as to why they didn’t repeal
repressive legislation was, that is against
the wishes of the Church, and against the
tradition and the moral fibre of the
Romanian people.”
The National Council to
Combat Discrimination was set up to
implement the antidiscrimination law. Its
role is to prevent discrimination (through
methods such as educational campaigns); to
serve as a mediator to reduce and eliminate
discrimination in concrete situations; to
investigate and apply sanctions (warnings or
fines) in cases of discrimination, including
both those cases it identifies itself and
those filed by individuals or organisations;
to monitor parties involved in a
discrimination case; and to provide
assistance in filing a discrimination
complaint with the council.
In 2005, the mayor of
Bucharest initially refused to authorise an
LGBT march in his city, but an international
campaign by ACCEPT and public intervention
by government officials (including the
President of Romania, the Minister of
Justice and the National Council to Combat
Discrimination) prompted the mayor to change
his mind and authorise the march in 2005, as
well as in 2006 and 2007.
March for
Diversity
However, during the 2006
and 2007 marches the neo-fascist group Noua
Dreapta, the Conservative Party (represented
in Parliament), and the New-Generation Party
participated in parallel “Normality
Marches”. Moreover, in 2006 and 2007 the
government tolerated the display of
neo-fascist symbols, although they are
banned in Romania.
May 2008, ACCEPT
successfully organised another LGBT march,
March for Diversity, in the capital
Bucharest. More than 200 people marched
under police protection to support equal
rights and against discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation and gender
identity. For the fourth consecutive year,
ACCEPT also organised a week-long Gay Fest
festival in Bucharest, while the
neo-fascists and conservatives organised an
opposing March for Normality.
The existing laws against
discrimination cover not only employment
issues, but also access to services, to
health, education etc., since it applies to
all human rights and fundamental freedoms or
rights recognised by Romanian legislation,
in the political, economic, social and
cultural field or in any other domains of
public life.
The antidiscrimination
law does not include gender identity and
expression, and the law on equal
opportunities between women and men does not
cover transgender status. As a result,
transgender people are not explicitly
protected in Romanian law.
Kosovo
The European Union has
given its blessing to Kosovo’s constitution,
saying it is in line with international
standards and guarantees.
Article 24 (Equality
Before the Law)
1. All are equal
before the law. Everyone enjoys the
right to equal legal protection without
discrimination.
2. No one shall
be discriminated against on grounds of
race, colour, gender, language,
religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, relation to
any community, property, economic and
social condition, sexual orientation,
birth, disability or other personal
status.
But laws are, as ever and
everywhere, one thing; the reality in the
streets another.
Traditional societal
attitudes about homosexuality have
intimidated most gays and lesbians into
concealing their sexual orientation. Gays
and lesbians have generally felt insecure,
with many reporting threats to their
personal safety. There have been fewer
threats reported than in previous years;
however, this may have been due to greater
caution taken by gays and lesbians. The
print medium has at times reinforced
negative attitudes by publishing articles
about homosexuality that characterised gays
and lesbians as mentally ill. At least one
political party, the Islamic-oriented
Justice Party, included a condemnation of
homosexuality in its political platform.
Violence and
discrimination against homosexuals is a
problem. The Centre for Social Emancipation,
a local NGO promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender rights, said there were a
number of other cases of discrimination
against homosexuals during 2008 but that
victims refused to allow it to present their
cases publicly out of fear of
discrimination. According to a US State
Department report in February this year, at
least one gay who went public had to flee
the country in danger of his life.
Further, although there
are laws against discrimination based on
sexual orientation, the report talks of the
very bad application of these laws.
Homophobia is to be found in the media and
in public opinion and many gays are not
aware of the protection that
antidiscrimination laws could give them.
Many also fear discrimination and
stigmatisation and many don’t dare take part
in the activities of gay organisations. This
means that many cases of violence are
committed by state authorities.
According to the lesbian
rights organisation Labris, 65 per cent of
gay respondents claimed they had experienced
violence due to their sexual orientation.
Only 10 per cent had reported the violence
to the police.
Denied equal
opportunities
According to a Kosovo gay
person at a conference I attended in Skopje
in September 2003, “What we are lacking in
Kosovo is the access to proper psychological
counselling and mental health. This is why
if you go to the website of our Gay Kosovo
Association [. . .] you will see that we
have devoted a lot of our space and time to
psychological issues. In other aspects of
health [. . .] there is a problem due to the
fact that people cannot openly admit to the
doctor that they are gay. That means they
will not be able to get specific advice
related due to their lifestyle.”
There are also reports
that homosexuals have been denied equal
opportunities in education and employment. A
survey by the Youth Initiatives for Human
Rights indicated that lesbians, gays,
bisexuals and transgender people experienced
widespread threats, hate speech, verbal
assault and physical violence.
The age of consent is 14
regardless of sexual orientation and/or
gender.
Moldova
In May 2008, participants
of the Pride parade in the capital of
Moldova, Chisinau, were attacked by violent
members of the neo-fascist movement New
Right. Fifty participants were held in a bus
surrounded by several hundred aggressive
protestors shouting, “Beat them to death”
and “Don’t let them escape.”
After being forced by the
neo-fascists to destroy their pride
materials – colourful balloons, posters with
antidiscrimination slogans and flags of the
EU – the Pride participants’ bus was
eventually allowed to go. The police merely
observed the violence and attacks and did
not intervene.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
At the start of the
Sarajevo Queerfestival in Sarajevo in
September 2008 some of the participants were
exposed to violent attacks by demonstrators.
The festival organisers decided after Day
One to close the festival due to the violent
attacks.
“The lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights
activists and the participants of the
Sarajevo Queer Festival continue to receive
death threats,” said an Amnesty
International statement in 2008. “On 25
September one of the main national dailies,
Dnevni Avaz, published the names of
all individuals who were injured in the
attack that took place on 24 September after
the opening of the festival. The names were
then published in two other dailies –
Oslobodjenje and Nezavisne Novine.”
Bulgaria
Between the two world
wars Bulgaria was quite unstable politically
with a phases such as a dictator-farmer;
a “democracy” without parties and a king who
governed. The country came under the
political and economic influence of Nazi
Germany. After 1944, and the Russian Army
conquered the country and a communist regime
was established, which only “abdicated” in
1990. Thus there is no great fund of
experience for a democratic development and
the honouring of human rights – also for
LGBT people.
The Republic of Bulgaria
is a parliamentary democracy with a
population of approximately 7.6 million.
Legislative authority is vested in the
unicameral National Assembly (Narodno
Sabranie). The country is ruled by a
coalition government headed by a prime
minister. Presidential elections held in
2006 were deemed generally free and fair.
Municipal elections held in October 2007
were marred by reports of unprecedented vote
buying.
Police abuse
While civilian
authorities generally maintained effective
control of law-enforcement organisations,
there were some instances in which
law-enforcement officers acted
independently.
The government generally
respected the human rights of its citizens;
however, there were problems in several
areas, among them police abuse, which
included beatings and other mistreatment of
pretrial detainees, prison inmates and
members of minorities; harsh conditions in
prisons and detention facilities; arbitrary
arrest and detention; and impunity.
There were increasing
limitations on freedom of the press; there
was discrimination against nontraditional
religious minorities; and there was
widespread corruption in the executive,
legislative and judicial branches of
government. Other problems included violence
against women and children, substandard
education for Romani children, harsh
conditions in state-run institutions for
children, trafficking in persons,
discrimination against persons with
disabilities and discrimination against
minority groups.
Homophobia also sits deep
in the consciousness of a majority of the
population. The majority of Bulgarians (70
per cent) are Orthodox Christians, but the
Church is not quite as influential as it is
elsewhere – since it is split, thus is not
so monolithic.
Established
family values
However, in a statement,
the Orthodox Bishop of Varna points out that
the Bible defines homosexuality as a sin,
that same-sex relationships are a disease
and an unnatural condition resulting from
“original sin”.
“Such public appearances
promote immorality and try to supplant the
established family values. We do not
denounce and despise these people but we
denounce the sin of homosexuality, and its
scandalous advertising,” the statement said.
According to the
research, 80 per cent of all Bulgarians have
negative attitudes towards gay people,
whereas 59 per cent are extremely
homophobic. Seventy per cent of the
respondents would not send their children to
a school with a gay teacher, and 50 per cent
would not work with gay people.
Gemini – the national
LGBT organisation – is conscious that to
change the stereotype thinking on which
homophobia is based will take time and
demand much work. The law that made
homosexual acts no longer punishable was
passed in 2002 and came into effect in 2004.
Since then, one of Gemini’s aims has been to
fight for change and make the changes known.
The media are not helpful
here. When Gemini called a press conference
to explain the changes, instead of showing
speakers dressed in suits, pictures of drag
queens and gay parades from the West were
shown. Thus they support the typical
stereotype thinking of the majority of the
population.
But there is progress.
The law for the prevention of discrimination
was worked out with the help of 14 Bulgarian
NGOs – including Gemini. The intention is to
ensure an effective antidiscrimination law
with equality in judicial processes and
equal opportunities to take part in
Bulgarian public life.
Discrimination in employment
However, according to a
US State Department report, “the government
did not effectively enforce this
prohibition. Reports of violence against
sexual minorities were rare, but societal
discrimination, particularly discrimination
in employment, although less common than in
previous years, remained a problem [. . .]
Gemini reported that individuals continued
to be reluctant to pursue legal remedies
[. . .].”
Despite the establishment
of an antidiscrimination commission,
judicial and police bodies do not show any
eagerness to collect evidence about the
homophobic motives of those who perpetrate
crimes. Judges are not obliged to consider
such motives as aggravating the
circumstances of guilt or to impose more
severe punishments when homophobic motives
are present. Discriminatory attitudes of
police officers towards sexual minorities
are no different from discrimination against
any other minorities. The passive behaviour
of the police shows a desire to ignore the
violation of the rights of LGBT people.
On 28 June 28 2008 about
a hundred participants marched under tight
security in the country’s first Gay Pride
parade. Police arrested around sixty
nationalist protestors attempting to disrupt
it. Those arrested were mostly
representatives of extremist groups who were
throwing stones, bottles, squibs and at
least one Molotov cocktail at the
procession. The leader of the nationalist
extremist Bulgarian National Union (BNU),
Boyan Rasate, was also arrested, allegedly
for taking part in the attempted violence.
The BNU had been among
the strongest opponents of the gay parade,
and even launched a campaign under the
motto: “Be Intolerant, Be Normal” with
posters spread all over Sofia.
The head of the Christian
Orthodox Church and the Muslim chief mufti
condemned the march, calling it immoral and
referring to homosexuality as a disease.
The road to tolerance and
equality is seldom straight (!) or short.
Scientifically proven
Did you hear this one? In
2005, the newspaper Duma, a paper
close to the social democrats, asserted that
homosexuality is caused by bad housing
conditions – and this has, if you believe
it, been scientifically proven.
The age of consent is 14,
according to Article 149. However, Article
151(2) has a provision for those who are
over 14 and do “not understand the
characteristics or the importance of the
act.”
Poland
Until the repeated
carving up of Poland between Tsarist Russia,
Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the
country had been a multinational,
multireligious country – and even after the
national resurrection in 1918 it remained
so. Almost a third of the population of
Warsaw in 1925 were Jewish.
During the years of
foreign occupation and division, however,
the Catholic Church – without being, as an
organisation, pro-revolutionary – kept alive
the idea of “a Poland” and a Polish nation.
It thus established itself in the minds of
the majority – if you are Polish you are a
Catholic – and thus has a special status in
the life of a majority of Poles. This was
not always the case, and has intensified
since 1945. Before then, the Catholic Church
was the largest religious grouping – among
several.
Poland is a republic with
a multiparty democracy and a population of
approximately 38.5 million. The bicameral
National Assembly consists of an upper
house, the Senate (Senat), and a lower house
(Sejm). Executive power is shared among the
prime minister, the Council of Ministers,
the president, and the Sejm. The October
2007 preterm National Assembly elections and
the 2005 presidential election were both
free and fair. Civilian authorities
generally maintained control of the security
forces.
Excessive use
of force
According to the 2008
human-rights report of the Poland Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour,
published in February this year, the
government generally respects the human
rights of its citizens; however, prison
conditions remain poor and overcrowded;
lengthy pretrial detention, misconduct and
excessive use of force by law-enforcement
officials have continued to be problems. The
judicial system is inefficient and continues
to function poorly.
Occasional anti-Semitic
violence and harassment are also problems.
Corruption remains a problem throughout the
government and society. There has been
discrimination against women in the labour
market, sexual exploitation of children,
trafficking in women and children and
societal discrimination and violence against
ethnic minorities and homosexuals.
Violations of workers’ rights and antiunion
discrimination have also been problems, says
the report.
And the economic crisis
will not help matters. The Business Portal
for Poland said in April:
Latest macroeconomic
data provide mounting evidence of an
economic slowdown in Poland. February
saw a continuation of a sharp decline in
industrial output, and retail sales
registered an annualised fall for the
first time in four years. The effects of
weaker economic activity are feeding
through into the labour market, with
slackening labour demand, rising
unemployment and slower wage growth.”
Although Poland abolished
anti-homosexual laws in 1932, between 1945
and 1990 the state, as well as the church,
regarded homosexuality as a kind of treason
against the country and the Christian
religion. Shortly after the “changes”,
groups were formed, often under the name of
Lambda, in many cities in Poland, but most
of them died within a few years. Lambda
Warsaw was founded 1997, has a social centre
and is publicly active, as is Lambda
Sczeczin.
The Campaign Against
Homophobia (KpH) is the active national LGBT
organisation. It takes part in discussions
against homophobia, in the media and in
politics, and tries to improve the public’s
opinion of homosexuals.
Public good
The Campaign Against
Homophobia was established in 2001 and is
officially recognised as an organisation for
the public good. The association works for
the equal treatment of bisexual, homosexual
and transgender people in Poland. KpH has
local branches in Kraków, Lublin, Szczecin,
Silesia, Warsaw and other major centres.
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Kraków march in
2007: participants are
protected by large numbers of
police. |
Karolina Bregula, a
heterosexual photographer who has studied in
Sweden thought that her country needed some
enlightenment in the matter homosexuality.
She took innocuous photographs of lesbian
and gay pairs holding hands against a
neutral urban background. With the KpH, they
became a publicity campaign.
The poster-photos were
put up – but didn’t stay there for long.
Catholic groups (especially the League of
Polish Families – Liga Polskich Rodzin)
protested loud and long. The photo-posters
were meant to be seen in the four largest
Polish cities – but they met so much hatred,
rejection and destruction that it was called
off.
In 2002 one of the major
dailies in Poland Gazeta Wyborcza,
started a debate about homosexuality. The
newspaper stressed the stereotypes:
homosexuality is against nature, against
morals; the gay movement is a plot to
mislead the young generation down the path
to hell; it is a world conspiracy of gays;
and so on.
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People use
umbrellas against a rain of stones,
eggs and apples in Kraków, 2004. |
However, awareness does
grow. A report on gay activism and
homophobia in Poland by Agnieszka Graff
said:
There has been a
surprising shift in the public discourse
within two or three years, from
invisibility – to almost daily headlines
in 2005 and 2006. It is true that the
majority of gays and lesbians in Poland
still lead a “double-life”, but the
homosexual is at the centre of an
increasingly polarised public debate.
This activity, the development of queer
studies in Poland, and the intensive,
and mostly homophobic, public debate can
only be understood in the historical and
political context of hopes and fears
about Poland’s place in Europe.
Lesbian Coalition (LBT),
Poland’s first autonomous lesbian group, is
well known for street theatre, and in Warsaw
a transgender group has been started, known
as Transfujsia.
Laws
Poland has transferred
the EU Directive 2000/78/EC into Polish law
via the Employment Relations Act, which came
into force in 2003. Daily life shows that
almost 2 million Polish gays and lesbians
are frequently discriminated against but are
mostly afraid of obtaining justice through
the courts.
“Whoever shows
pornographic materials in public, so that it
is forced upon people who do not want to see
it, will be punished with a fine or partial
loss of freedom, or imprisonment for up to
one year,” says Interpol. It is however,
apparently applied with some finesse. One
wonders how the opponents of marches for
tolerance and equality get away with
pictures like this.
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Homophobic
posters of dubious quality! |
The age of consent in
Poland is 15, but if someone over 18
“sleeps” with someone under 15 (with or
without consent) only the older person is
punished.
Summing up
Lesbians and gays,
bisexuals and transgender people live with
discrimination and exclusion throughout
Europe. Homophobic violence and disrespect
are daily events. In most EU states,
same-sex pairs do not enjoy the same rights
and protection as heterosexual pairs, and
are therefore discriminated against and
disadvantaged – for instance, in terms of
access to social services such as health and
pensions.
A new phase in the fight
for equality in the workplace is emerging
for LGBT people and their employers in much
of central and Eastern Europe, continuing a
fight that is still in progress in Western
Europe.
Sixty per cent of
regulations and laws are made in Brussels.
The ministers and parliamentarians come from
various states with different ideas of
justice, morals and democracy. They
influence the decisions made by the EU. With
the opening of the employment market, and
many workers fleeing their own countries for
better wages and work conditions, it is now
concretely in our own interests to give
every possible assistance to LGBT people and
others in central and Eastern Europe working
for a better, more tolerant, democratic and
less corrupt society there.
It has been – and will be
– a long struggle costing energy, money and
time. Who knows? Perhaps it is something
that will accompany us, like anti-Semitism
for centuries. That is all the more reason
not to neglect the fight now – or history
may come close to repeating itself.
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