TOPIC 64
Constant adaptation to extraordinary and extremely questionable events is one of the human qualities that can endanger the values that have bought so much sweat and tears to liberal democracies. Areas commonly labelled as “hate-free” are experiencing a worryingly incessant increase in crimes against different groups, including the LGTBIQ+ community. Encouraged by the hate speech that the extreme right has advocated for in Europe since the financial crisis of 2008, the lack of a forceful response and the growing daily life with which we witness such acts do nothing but jeopardize the lives of millions of people and the foundations on which Europe’s liberal democracies are built.
International Relations
April 2001 marks a milestone in the fight for the rights of the LGTBIQ+ community, with the Netherlands becoming the first country in the world to legalize equal marriage. Since then, up to thirty countries have joined this list. For their part, the work of the United Nations and the European Union to defend the rights of the community dates back to 1994, when the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that the prohibition and criminalization of homosexual behaviour violated the right to non-discrimination and the right to privacy. A decade later, in 2006, the UN published the Yogyakarta Principles, relating to the application of international human rights law to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, thus explicitly extending – such recognition was implicitly envisaged – the application of the rights included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to LGTBIQ+ people.
In 2008, the initiative of France and the Netherlands, backed by the European Union, led to the UN Declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity, becoming the first declaration on LGTBIQ+ rights of the General Assembly, which condemned violence, discrimination, exclusion and stigmatization based on reasons of sexual orientation and gender identity, and which in turn led to an opposite resolution promoted by Muslim countries. On the other hand, since 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council has approved various resolutions in which it has affirmed the rights of LGTBIQ+ people, has proposed best practices and ways to leave violence behind and combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as condemning the application of the death penalty on grounds of sexual orientation.
However, in the face of a small number of countries in which there is constitutional protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation, there are still in the 21st century a total of 127 countries in which laws are in force that criminalize sexual activity between people of the same sex, mostly African and Middle Eastern countries, with same-sex sexual activity being sanctioned with the death penalty in countries such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia or Iran.
However, it is enough to put the spotlight on the West to show that the discrimination suffered by LGTBIQ+ people is more present than ever, mainly motivated by the hate speech that penetrates our democratic societies and institutions at the hands of the far-right. Despite the fact that at the beginning of 2021 the European Commission launched the European LGTBIQ+ Strategy to stop the homophobic wave driven by Poland and Hungary, and the European Parliament declared the European Union as an “LGTBIphobia free zone”, last June, Hungary approved an anti-LGTBI law. This law has not gone unnoticed by either European leaders or the international community, and the response of the European Commission has been forceful in the face of these events that clearly violate the principles on which the Union is based.
Such forcefulness has led to the opening of files to prevent Warsaw or Budapest from endangering the democratic integrity of the Union or violating the rights of millions of citizens and that could translate into millionaire and coercive fines if non-compliance with community regulations persists. However, the international community should take a step forward and ensure the guarantee of the rights of LGTBIQ+ people, taking resounding measures against those countries in which there is systematic discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, since the rights of LGTBIQ+ people are above all human rights.
Human Rights & Development
Poland is widely seen as the most homophobic country in the EU. However, Hungary seems eager to narrow the gap between them, collateral damage in Orban’s dream of creating an illiberal democracy. Their new so-called “anti-paedophilia act” bans under-18s’ access to information about LGBTQ+ as well as their representation in books and TV aimed at an underage audience. As strange as it might seem, a show such as Modern Family could be banned soon in an EU country. By associating homosexuality with paedophilia in the name of the “protection of children”, this law stigmatizes and hurts the LGBTQ+ community in defence of “traditional values” appealing to the ruling party’s Christian conservative base. The new regulation notably lacks any mention to the Catholic Church, which avoids taking responsibility while fueling the homophobic rhetoric in both countries. Needless to say, attacks against the LGBTQ+ collective have nothing to do with the protection of children, which is the argument the Hungarian government has shielded behind. Quite the opposite, as it puts youth at risk of exclusion and abuse based on their sexual orientation.
The European Commission has recently launched legal actions against both Poland and Hungary for violations of the rights of LGBTQ+ people. The institution, acting as “guardian of the treaties”, mentions a direct attack on the foundations of the Union, namely Article 2 of the Treaty, which ensures the “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities”. The procedures could lead to financial penalties and intend to pressure both governments to regress in their homophobic attitudes.
Brussels argues that Hungary’s law breaks EU regulation and goes against freedom of expression and information, as well as the freedom to provide services and free movement of goods. Of course, the problem goes beyond that, as it breaks fundamental rights on non-discrimination and the right to private life and family.
The case against Poland involves the infamous LGBTQ+ ideology-free zones. The lack of cooperation from the government on delivering information about these Polish municipalities triggered EU action, which seeks to determine whether these areas are still eligible to receive EU funds.
Homophobia is a universal threat, only the degree of danger varies. While Spain is not considered to be homophobic, the measurement scale is always compared to others. People still face violence based on who they are, love, or what they look like, and we need to be vigilant with the rhetoric of intolerance gaining strength in countries where LGBTQ+ rights seem established. The murder of Samuel Luiz in A Coruña on the 3rd of July brings this to light, but when the focus is not there, danger and fear are still present for the community.
The authoritarian turn and politics in Poland and Hungary normalize this violence and feeds the lethal hatred that has claimed too many victims. Despite the challenges to pressure these two countries to withdraw their barbaric legislation, Europe’s unified stance and action is good news. There must be trust in the institutions to take a stand and act as a security net when minority rights are threatened by national authorities.
Economy
The European Commission opened a case against Budapest over Orbán’s law, inspired by a 2013 Russian law, that bans the broadcasting of LGTBI content in areas where minors are present. The European executive considers that it violates the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights on points such as freedom of expression and non-discrimination enshrined in Articles 11 and 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. On the other hand, Poland has also entered an infringement proceeding due to its so-called LGTBI-free zones created in several municipalities.
This issue not only represents a potential lack of moral legitimacy for Europe but also an identity crisis for the Union. If there is one thing that defines, and must define, the European Union it is heterogeneity, which is also based on the diversity of political trends represented in the main bodies of the Commission. However, this heterogeneity, which is a richness in many respects, can be an issue if it threatens the internal coherence in moral and ethical values of the European Union.
Therefore, Hungary and Poland, ultra-conservative states, are undoubtedly proving to be a real Achilles heel for the European Union. Both autocracies especially with regard to LGTBI rights are posing a real threat to fundamental European moral and ethical principle, thus its integrity. In fact, Andrzej Duda, President of Poland has gone so far as to declare that “LGBT ideology is more destructive to man than Soviet communism”.
Europe at first chose to blocked the 1.8-trillion-euro budget and coronavirus recovery package as a mean to foster both countries to respect the rule of law, but ultimately decided to let the financial package go through.
Although blocking the funds would have provided a more aggressive incentive for Europe to bring both countries into compliance with European principles, it must be understood that it would also have had a disastrous economic effect on both countries. Funds are highly needed to give the economies of all European countries the needed boost to face the recession caused by COVID-19. The externalities of the lack of financial support would have ended up being paid for by the citizens, who are innocent of the drift of their leaders.
Society & Culture
From the 1970s onwards, a certain sense of progress in civil rights and policies of inclusion and recognition of minorities occupied the minds of Western democracies, while, as planned, neoliberalism acquired an undeniable rhythm. But the system crisis of 2008 and the challenges of this new century have forced neoliberalism to twist its course and establish new alliances. Then we found the outstretched hand of the far-right, furious and ready to direct the discontent of the popular classes towards a reactionary hatred against minorities and the oppressed. The rights and freedoms, conquered through daily struggle and with an exemplary trajectory, for example, of feminist women or the Queer community, thus became at the centre of the political debate, and strongly became identity issues.
This is one of the readings behind the behaviour of the far-right and the electoral victories of Law and Justice, Viktor Orban, Donald Trump or the Vox political party. Hatred towards the LGTBIQ+ community is only the tip of the iceberg of this new neoliberal and ultra-conservative union that is expanding throughout South and North America and Europe. In our continent, the alarm goes off in the face of this type of hatred because it is relatively tolerant of sexual and gender freedom, but it reaches, however, with impunity, its greatest exponent in xenophobia and Islamophobia (which, of course, also Poland and Hungary lead). Deep down, with its local peculiarities, it is the same reactionary current that must be fought in union.
All those of us who do not give in to homogeneity and conservative normativity (feminists, racialized people, members of the LGTBIQ+ community) have as a declared enemy an increasingly legitimized far-right and a soulless and complicit neoliberalism. These types of policies should not exist in any contemporary democracy, and the countries that enact them should be treated with the greatest contempt and the greatest of consequences from the European Union, if they do not want to see it reproduces, infects and necrotics other member states.
Environment & Health
On June 14, thousands of protesters displayed a 10-meter rainbow-colored flag in front of the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest as a promise of civil disobedience against the law passed by the government. The European Parliament has stressed that this legislation is not an isolated incident, but “constitutes another willful and premeditated example of the gradual dismantling of fundamental rights in Hungary”. However, this wave of LGTBI-phobia is not exclusive to this country. In 2018, 63% of Russians believed that “gay propaganda” was a concerted effort to destroy Russian values, and in Poland homophobia was a key element in the presidential campaign that won Andrezej Duda reelection in 2020.
A survey conducted by the Hatter society, a Hungarian LGTB + group, showed that more than half of LGTBIQ+ youth have felt unsafe at the institute due to their sexual orientation and 37% due to their gender expression. In addition, the study shows that 42% of LGBTQ+ youth were thinking about suicide, while 30% had attempted it. András Léderer, a human rights lawyer in Budapest, says that “homophobic rhetoric is worrying because there are many young people in the community who do not have anyone to talk to about how they feel”, so that their mental health can be seriously affected. This is confirmed by a study by ILGA-Europe, which shows that LGBTQ+ young people commit suicide mainly because they are in a desperate situation born of the exclusion and harassment they experience in their family, in educational institutions or among their peers or their religious community.
With the legislation passed by the Hungarian state, the suffering of LGTBIQ+ youth will intensify, as it would make programs and debates that promote acceptance and inclusion impossible. Amnesty International Hungary added that “the law clearly violates the right to freedom of expression, human dignity and equal treatment”.
Discrimination, exclusion, marginalization and multiple attacks suffered by the LGTBIQ+ community have no place in any place that claims to be democratic. In the face of such acts, only a forceful, coordinated, supportive and conclusive response can silence hatred and guarantee, once again, a safe space for all people.
Translators: José Cáceres, María Lorente, Carmen Gómez, Icíar Sastre
THE GLOBAL VISION 