Today the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) presents its updated report on Homophobia, transphobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity to the Members of the European Parliament. The FRA report reveals that in some EU Member States, legislation and practice is increasing the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, while in others the rights of LGBT persons are being restricted or neglected. This creates an uneven landscape in the protection of LGBT rights throughout Europe.

The FRA report highlights three underlying problems faced by LGBT persons in the EU: that they are forced to live in silence and invisibility, suffer violent attacks, and are not treated equally, for example at work, by landlords or when moving within the EU.

The report clearly highlights the hardship that transgender people still face in changing their legal gender, which often includes forced sterilisation and compulsory divorce. Additionally, the real life test requirement oftentimes leads transgender people into unemployment and social marginalisation. FRA calls on EU Member States to “abolish divorce and genital surgery as preconditions to the rectification of the recorded sex or alteration of name on official documents.”

ILGA-Europe encourages taking a decisive step towards the adoption of new directive banning discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, religion /belief and sexual orientation in such areas as access to goods and services, health, and education.

LGBT people need to be included in the process of the implementation of the Stockholm Programme to ensure their civil status is being recognised across the EU, that they are protected from hate crimes, and the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity are taken into account in asylum claims.

Sexual orientation and gender identity need to be taken into account and included in all other current EU policy developments and legislation.

Source:

www.ilga-europe.org

www.fra.europa.eu