Tag Archives: European Union

Via Andrew Sullivan.

This is how Sarkozy is going after Marine Le Pen’s fascist supporters. The French presidential runoff is in two weeks.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has commissioned Gallup Europe for a survey of the LGBT residents of the EU. Besides occasional news reports about discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people, there is very little comparable data collected across the EU about the everyday experiences of LGBT people with respect to discrimination. Based on the survey …

In a surprising blow to Europe’s same-sex marriage movement, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that gay people have no inherent right to the same civil marriage that their neighbors do. The ruling came in a case in which two French lesbians petitioned the court to jointly adopt a child as a married couple. With their heads up …

Hungary’s new national constitution and its ban on same-sex marriage is now in effect. The document specifically restricts marriage to straight couples and appears to ban abortion by saying that foetuses will be protected from conception onwards. It does not protect citizens from discrimination on the grounds of age or sexual orientation, and Amnesty International said last year it would …

Croatia is scheduled to join the European Union in 2013, but the EU has just adopted a resolution warning them that membership requires abiding by LGBT rights laws. Croatian pride parades have been plagued by anti-gay violence that was quietly allowed (if not overtly sanctioned) by the government. The resolution adopted by the Parliament says in part that it is …

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has promised to resign in the wake of his nation’s growing financial crisis. We last heard from Berlusconi here on JMG when he dismissed his patronage of an underage prostitute by saying, “At least I’m not a homo.” Berlusconi said today that he favored early elections and that Angelino Alfano, head of his People of Liberty …

The European Parliament has repeated its 2008 call for a comprehensive LGBT rights law that covers all European Union member nations. A bill on that subject has languished for three years. The draft horizontal anti-discrimination Directive would forbid discrimination based on religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in access to goods and services, education, and access to social …

After a cabinet minister was arrested for having gay sex, an official from the European Union has asked the Turkish Cypriot government to legalize homosexuality. All of Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, but only the Greek portion has repealed their ban on gay sex.

The lower chamber of Italy’s parliament yesterday voted against a bill that would have extended discrimination protections to LGBT people. The Chamber of Deputies voted yesterday 293 votes to 250 not to approve the legislation. Gay rights campaigners have called on the European Union to step in. Italy already bans discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, ethnicity and nationality …

Back in December we learned that Hungary had approved a draft version of a new constitution that outlaws same-sex marriage. Today lawmakers there officially adopted that constitution. The 2009 law granting same-sex couples some rights after registering their partnerships remains in effect. International Viewpoint predicts that the EU will do little about Hungary’s newly official ban. The European commission scarcely …

Under pressure from the EU, cell phone manufacturers in Europe have agreed to adopt a universal charger that works on all phones. This ad is their creepy way of spreading the news.

“David Kato was a man that fought for the rights of people to live freely regardless of their sexual orientation in Uganda. David Kato suffered a violent death and I send my condolences to his family. I call for the perpetrators of this crime to be brought to justice. He was a remarkable human rights defender. I regret that Uganda …

The European Union is telling the Czech Republic to cease testing the homosexuality of gay asylum seekers by hooking them up to a penile tumescence monitor while they watch straight porn. According to Czech immigration officials, getting an erection while watching heterosexual porn meant the applicant was lying about escaping gay persecution in their home country. The Czech Republic is …

The European Parliament has declared that official documents such as marriage, civil union, birth, and death certificates must be recognized by all members of the European Union. Rex Wockner reports at Pink Paper: “This is a great development for the many couples and families who see their fundamental rights diminished every day when crossing a border inside the EU,” said …

Polish LGBT activists have launched a billboard campaign called Love Doesn’t Exclude Us in Warsaw and Lodz to support their demand for a civil partnerships law. Campaign organizer Wojciech Szot writes us today: The aim of the campaign is to draw attention to the fact that Poland has no civil partnerships law, and Polish legislation provides no regulations for same-sex …

I guess they don’t mince their words in the EU Parliament. (Via – AmericaBlog)

Lithuania’s new law anti-gay law takes effect today after being slightly amended due to the protests of the European Parliament. The law bars ‘minors’ from receiving information about any type of sexual relationships, and seeks to protect the ‘traditional’ concept of family defined by the Constitution as based on the union between a man and a woman. Last September the …

The European Parliament has reaffirmed its policy that EU member states must support LGBT rights. Turkey, Macedonia, and Croatia are moving closer to admission, but all three continue to violate the EU’s requirements. The three candidate countries were reminded that the protection of all minorities is a non-negotiable condition to access the European Union. “I am happy that our amendments …