Scotland Leads Ranking Of LGBT Rights

Via press release:

According to ILGA-Europe’s annual review of LGBTI equality and human rights laws across the continent, published today, Scotland now comes ahead of the rest of the UK and Europe in the legal protections offered to LGBTI people. The ‘Rainbow Europe Index’ measures progress in European countries on LGBTI equality against a 48-point criteria that includes legal protections from discrimination in employment and services, measures to tackle hate crime, rights and recognition for transgender and intersex people, and equality in family law including same-sex marriage and parenting rights.

Following the legalisation of same-sex marriage last year, Scotland now meets 92% of ILGA Europe’s criteria, compared to 86% for the UK as a whole. The UK’s overall figure is brought down by lack of protections for intersex people in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland’s failure to respect LGBTI human rights in a range of areas including its refusal to legalise same-sex marriage. 

Scotland (92%) is joined in ILGA-Europe’s ranking of the top five countries for LGBTI legal equality by the rest of the UK (86%), Belgium (83%), Malta (77%), and Sweden (72%). The five countries ranked worst for LGBTI legal equality in Europe include Azerbaijan (5%), Russia (8%), Armenia (9%), Ukraine (10%) and Monaco (11%). With a few exceptions, the human rights of LGBTI people are better respected in Western Europe than Central Europe, and are least protected in Eastern Europe.

(Tipped by JMG reader Timothy)

Europe Rainbow Map 2013

ILGA-Europe has issued its annual overview of LGBT rights. Although it does not yet have full marriage equality, the United Kingdom received the highest rating of the 49 nations in the report, earning a 77% score. Russia got the lowest score at 7%.   Via Pink News:

Among the EU member states causing major concern are Hungary and Greece. The report notes that the economic crisis in Greece has given a platform to extremist groups, such as the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, who target minority groups including LGBT activists.

North Cyprus continues to be the only place on the continent of Europe where homosexuality is a criminal act, while expressions of “overt homophobia and transphobia” by government, religious leaders and extremist groups were “common” in Bulgaria.

Italy is not taking any legislative initiatives despite having a “relatively high level” of violent homophobia and transphobia. Meanwhile in France, despite the recent passing of the country’s same-sex marriage bill, 1,397 cases of hate crime, hate speech and discrimination incidents against sexual minorities were documented last year.

The co-chair of ILGA-Europe notes: "The Annual Review 2013 uncovers the real situation of LGBTI people beyond laws and gives us the whole picture of what it is like to be an LGBTI person in Europe today. The picture is far from satisfactory."  Ratings and graphs for individual nations can be downloaded here.

Report: 86 Countries Outlaw Gay Sex

A new report from the ILGA has raised the number of countries that criminalize same-sex act to 86.

The International Lesbian and Gay Association’s 2008 report on state-sponsored homophobia says that being lesbian or gay is risking jail time in 86 countries and death penalty in seven. The figure normally quoted is 77 countries. The research deals only with legislation criminalising consensual sexual acts between persons of the same sex in private above the age of consent.

Laws dealing with such acts in public, with under aged people, with force or by any other reason are not included. In addition to those 86 countries there are six provinces or territorial units which also punish homosexuality with imprisonment, said ILGA. A 30-year-old world federation, ILGA consists of 670 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex groups from more than 100 countries.

"Although many of the countries listed in the report do not systematically implement those laws, their mere existence reinforces a culture where a significant portion of the citizens needs to hide from the rest of the population out of fear," said Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, co-secretary general of ILGA.

"A culture where hatred and violence are justified by the state and force people into invisibility or into denying who they truly are. Whether exported by colonial empires or the result of legislations culturally shaped by religious beliefs, if not deriving directly from a conservative interpretation of religious texts, homophobic laws are the fruit of a certain time and context in history. Homophobia is cultural. Homophobia, lesbophobia and transphobia are not inborn. People learn them as they grow."

A map of the countries listed by the ILGA is above, but you might find the details hard to read even when you embiggen it.