The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has been drawing attention to gender-based violence and discrimination for many years. The Assembly is now working on a report titled “The fight for a level playing field – ending discrimination against women in the world of sport” (https://pace.coe.int/en/files/28232), which will result in a resolution to be adopted by the Assembly in 2021.

We, along with ILGA Europe, TGEU, and OII Europe, are working to prepare a short submission on the specific needs and struggles of LBTI women in sports, and are looking for inputs to this submission.

Inputs can be:

– focused at the local, regional, or national level, or presenting a full Council of Europe perspective

– focused on LBTI women as a whole or on specific groups within the LBTI communities

The format for submissions is informal, and can include individual testimonies, statistical data, or descriptions of situations and practices affecting these communities.

 

Click here to share your inputs via an online form

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JACHfZyxk7jIli4TKqS5A-vEJ3uU6ZvqJCpnKu3j8-I/viewform?edit_requested=true

 

Inputs are due by 31 January 2021.

The questions on your email address and inclusion of reference to you or your organisation in the survey are mandatory; all other questions may be skipped if you choose.

 

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has been drawing attention to gender-based violence and discrimination for many years. The Assembly is now working on a report titled “The fight for a level playing field – ending discrimination against women in the world of sport” (https://pace.coe.int/en/files/28232), which will result in a resolution to be adopted by the Assembly in 2021.

We, along with ILGA Europe, TGEU, and OII Europe, are working to prepare a short submission on the specific needs and struggles of LBTI women in sports, and are looking for inputs to this submission.

Inputs can be:

– focused at the local, regional, or national level, or presenting a full Council of Europe perspective

– focused on LBTI women as a whole or on specific groups within the LBTI communities

The format for submissions is informal, and can include individual testimonies, statistical data, or descriptions of situations and practices affecting these communities.

 

Click here to share your inputs via an online form

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JACHfZyxk7jIli4TKqS5A-vEJ3uU6ZvqJCpnKu3j8-I/viewform?edit_requested=true

 

Inputs are due by 31 January 2021.

The questions on your email address and inclusion of reference to you or your organisation in the survey are mandatory; all other questions may be skipped if you choose.

 

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION-LESBIAN SURVEY!!

EL*C launches an European and Central Asian survey on the impact of Covid-19 on lesbians (individuals and groups)

Help us get thousands of answers from lesbian groups & individuals!

Since March 2020, EL*C has been trying to collect testimonies and fight the impacts of Covid-19 on lesbians. They are huge and we felt the need for a more general and thorough evaluation.

Please help us by filling out the 10 minutes online survey in 8 different languages: English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Srpski, Türkçe, Русский

 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN

 

EL*C launches the first European and Central Asian survey on the impact of Covid-19 on lesbians (individuals and groups)

Since March 2020, EL*C has been collecting testimonies and analyzing the impacts of Covid-19 on lesbians. They are huge and we felt the need for a more general and thorough evaluation.

By consequence, the EL*C has initiated a comprehensive online survey with the objective of gathering over 4000 responses. In order to maximise the outreach within the lesbian communities in Europe and Central Asia, the survey has been developed with two key targets in mind: lesbians individuals and lesbian groups. We hope that with these two pools of responses we will be better able to assess the impact of the pandemic both on an individual and collective basis.

The survey aims at assessing the COVID-19 impact in a more structured and analytical way, with a focus on private and professional life, including safety, health, socio-economic impact, and  impact on the movement. From the little information available so far, we’ve observed that lesbians have been trapped in potentially dangerous situations due to the crisis, from young lesbians obliged to quarantine with their lesbophobic families, to older lesbians that cannot go out, do not have family on which to rely on, and are provided food and medication by the local lesbian community. Lesbians are being fired by their employer, as a result of their families not being recognised as equal to heterosexual ones, or not recognised at all.

Help us reaching out to lesbian individuals and groups, and getting thousands of answers, by disseminating this Survey throughout your networks and contacts! EL*C welcomes responses by lesbians on a wide gender identity spectrum (trans, cis, non binary).

The final goal of this survey is to draft – based on the findings – a series of targeted recommendations for institutional & governmental policy makers and donors to take into account in the current crisis management schemes.

Between December 2020 and March 2020, the survey will be accessible online and in 8 different languages, namely: Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Serbian. (To change the language in the survey: click on the top right button and scroll down to find the language that suits. Or click on the direct link). Help us get thousands of answers from lesbian groups & individuals!

English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN

Русский: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=ru

Français: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=fr

Español: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=es

Srpski: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=sr_Latn_RS

Deutsch: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=de

Italiano: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=it

Türkçe: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=tr

This project has been supported by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

 

 

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION-LESBIAN SURVEY!!

EL*C launches an European and Central Asian survey on the impact of Covid-19 on lesbians (individuals and groups)

Help us get thousands of answers from lesbian groups & individuals!

Since March 2020, EL*C has been trying to collect testimonies and fight the impacts of Covid-19 on lesbians. They are huge and we felt the need for a more general and thorough evaluation.

Please help us by filling out the 10 minutes online survey in 8 different languages: English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Srpski, Türkçe, Русский

 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN

 

EL*C launches the first European and Central Asian survey on the impact of Covid-19 on lesbians (individuals and groups)

Since March 2020, EL*C has been collecting testimonies and analyzing the impacts of Covid-19 on lesbians. They are huge and we felt the need for a more general and thorough evaluation.

By consequence, the EL*C has initiated a comprehensive online survey with the objective of gathering over 4000 responses. In order to maximise the outreach within the lesbian communities in Europe and Central Asia, the survey has been developed with two key targets in mind: lesbians individuals and lesbian groups. We hope that with these two pools of responses we will be better able to assess the impact of the pandemic both on an individual and collective basis.

The survey aims at assessing the COVID-19 impact in a more structured and analytical way, with a focus on private and professional life, including safety, health, socio-economic impact, and  impact on the movement. From the little information available so far, we’ve observed that lesbians have been trapped in potentially dangerous situations due to the crisis, from young lesbians obliged to quarantine with their lesbophobic families, to older lesbians that cannot go out, do not have family on which to rely on, and are provided food and medication by the local lesbian community. Lesbians are being fired by their employer, as a result of their families not being recognised as equal to heterosexual ones, or not recognised at all.

Help us reaching out to lesbian individuals and groups, and getting thousands of answers, by disseminating this Survey throughout your networks and contacts! EL*C welcomes responses by lesbians on a wide gender identity spectrum (trans, cis, non binary).

The final goal of this survey is to draft – based on the findings – a series of targeted recommendations for institutional & governmental policy makers and donors to take into account in the current crisis management schemes.

Between December 2020 and March 2020, the survey will be accessible online and in 8 different languages, namely: Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Serbian. (To change the language in the survey: click on the top right button and scroll down to find the language that suits. Or click on the direct link). Help us get thousands of answers from lesbian groups & individuals!

English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN

Русский: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=ru

Français: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=fr

Español: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=es

Srpski: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=sr_Latn_RS

Deutsch: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=de

Italiano: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=it

Türkçe: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58RLKVN?lang=tr

This project has been supported by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

 

K​EYNOTE​ BY JOELLE SAMBI NZEBA
B​ERLIN​ ​CONFERENCE ON​ N​OVEMBER​ 18​TH​ “I​NTERSECTIONALITY​ ​AND​ LESBIAN​* V​ISIBILITY”

All the stories resounded continuously beyond the city. All the stories of the past were gently pulsing in the air like the music of the wind between the leaves of the trees.Here, dykes had chosen to make this country the opposite of a nation : no flags flying on the buildings, pride beating like a heart in the chest was enough. No national anthem that glorifies the powerful, the victorious and leaves others in the shadows. No, all that matters here is the sum of the stories, the singular stories of these women who were once described as fat, scarred, handicapped, fragile, hysterical, boring, angry, radical, too thin, too shy, too sexed up, masculine, feminine, noisy, hairy… too lesbian !
And because one must remember the stigmas so that they never hurt again, the dykes had built the city with history books.

Thus, the centuries-old lesbian stories were everywhere : hanging on trees, in the rivers, in the heart of an apple, etc.

Everywhere, carefully ​carved words, engraved in the stone, rainbow neon lights lit up intermittently to remind spirits, young and old, of the victorious struggles of the past. And in harmony, ​as the words blossomed, ivy and hibiscus had covered all the hate tags.

Once a year, as the oceans turned blood red, the dykes abandoned their activities to gather under the moon. They then make a big fire and for days and nights, gather around it, the bodies become lights, torches, glittering fireflies; they remember with an emotional joy, all the lives lost in battle, the sound of chains, the cries, the scratches, the wounds, the betrayals, the pain, the sadness….

For 3 days and 3 nights, they spoke the names of all those who had fought long and lost much before the Great Lightning. Then, everynight, the oldest hand of the city picks 2 names, 2 lesbians who have the mission to tell in turn without stopping, their story or the story of their family.

First name Sanza, she says:

My name is Sanza which means “Season”. My grandmother named me that way so that I don’t forget that my black skin is not a costume, it doesn’t fall like leaves in autumn, it can’t be confused with the one that burns under the summer sun. I am not black by choice, by envy, by mood…

To be black is not a cape, not a garment that one wears during a demonstration.

It’s not a profile picture, it’s not the new fashion trend, it’s not next spring’s color, it’s not a usurpation, it’s not a penchant, it’s not a complaint nor a nightmare that prevents you from sleeping peacefully. It’s me, just me, Sanza.

Before the Great Lightning, we heard all kinds of things, in addition to the violence in a man’s world an​d the beatings and injustices, we had to stand up to the winds of prejudice even in our communities.

We were told: “We are all the same. To be a lesbian is not the same…and after all, are we not all lesbian ? One can be a little bit lesbian once in a while”.

I would answer: “I don’t know if we are the same or even if “being a lesbian” is declared, is chosen with a snap of the fingers, what is certain is that if it is a choice, it is always a struggle, a resignation, a renunciation of the quietness of family, friends, work, society as a whole. Everything always has to be redone. To be rebuilt. To be reconstructed. Always and inevitably, even within feminism and even between the lines of good resolutions for equality”.

We were told: “You are cute, so pretty, but being a lesbian, what an idea, what a waste for the world ! »

I would an​swer, “What world is this? The o​ne where we have to fight for our freedoms? The one where we have to debate for an inch of independence? Working twice, three times more without almost any recognition? Walking the corridors, brightening up meetings, proving, debating almost begging for a few pennies ? »

We were told: “You complain all the time, you underline your differences, it’s normal that you are on the margins, a minority within the minority”.

So I stopped answering and joined the Dyke Force.

Around the fire, the women had greeted Sanza’s story with laughter, applause and youh-youh of all kinds. Then another woman took the floor.

Noura

My name is Noura. Light. I was born at night under a roof glittering with stars. One more dyke in a city between mountains and sea. Before the Great Lightning, I lived in search of the limit, in search of a happiness different from the one served in a kit or a can. With my imperfect body, my head in a storm, and with my desires in complete disorder.

I have cherished each of my cravings, with the proud vanity of the oppressed. To ransack everything, to burn everything and to watch the last letters of the patriarchy burn with a pyromaniac appeasement. This is what my life was like before the Great Lightning.

Before living with you in this city.

Then came the night when I caught desire in the apple of blue, green, brown and black eyes.. A mischievous hip, a lost hand, a murderous smile and the evils that predicted a future made of sweet lips.

One night. Thousands of nights. Her body against mine. Bodies by the thousands, deformed, out of the norm. Bodies that squeeze together with pleasure, a zipper, a hand, fingers that find, a neck, chewed lips. A breast, a fall, a shoulder, blood flowing in. Temples beating to the rhythm of the pleasure that rises from the lower back, the hollow of the kidneys. Time stands still. The creaking of two bodies, a thousand bodies lost in sweat, thousand bodies that don’t give a damn about the world. Spread apart, suspended, skins subtracted from the eyes of men. Our lives that explode in kisses that bless the goddess cyprine.

At the time, every day, we heard some people say: “You are too provocative! Live hidden if you don’t want people to look at you with lustful eyes! »

Every day we would hear: “Your embraces disgust us, they disturb the natural order of things”.

So I joined, we joined the Dyke force and we loved each other more and more.

On the 3rd evening, in the city with no flags, no anthem, on that night of fire, the lesbians got up. They danced as close as possible to one another and sang every word hanging on trees, in the rivers, in the heart of an apple, etc.

Happy to live in a world that has finally changed.

There/ is our radicality, in our lesbian bodies, imperfect body with its darkness, its incapacities, with its wrinkles and stretch marks. With its impulses, its beauty, its radiance and its extraordinary banality.
Our revolutions lie in our loves, our sexualities. In the political and assumed hedonism.

This is our utopia: to enjoy, enjoy and enjoy endlessly and to populate the world with our stories.

To be continued…

 

Text by Joelle Sambi Nzeba (download here) (Watch the performance here)

Art by Camille Nestor Josie

K​EYNOTE​ BY JOELLE SAMBI NZEBA
B​ERLIN​ ​CONFERENCE ON​ N​OVEMBER​ 18​TH​ “I​NTERSECTIONALITY​ ​AND​ LESBIAN​* V​ISIBILITY”

All the stories resounded continuously beyond the city. All the stories of the past were gently pulsing in the air like the music of the wind between the leaves of the trees.Here, dykes had chosen to make this country the opposite of a nation : no flags flying on the buildings, pride beating like a heart in the chest was enough. No national anthem that glorifies the powerful, the victorious and leaves others in the shadows. No, all that matters here is the sum of the stories, the singular stories of these women who were once described as fat, scarred, handicapped, fragile, hysterical, boring, angry, radical, too thin, too shy, too sexed up, masculine, feminine, noisy, hairy… too lesbian !
And because one must remember the stigmas so that they never hurt again, the dykes had built the city with history books.

Thus, the centuries-old lesbian stories were everywhere : hanging on trees, in the rivers, in the heart of an apple, etc.

Everywhere, carefully ​carved words, engraved in the stone, rainbow neon lights lit up intermittently to remind spirits, young and old, of the victorious struggles of the past. And in harmony, ​as the words blossomed, ivy and hibiscus had covered all the hate tags.

Once a year, as the oceans turned blood red, the dykes abandoned their activities to gather under the moon. They then make a big fire and for days and nights, gather around it, the bodies become lights, torches, glittering fireflies; they remember with an emotional joy, all the lives lost in battle, the sound of chains, the cries, the scratches, the wounds, the betrayals, the pain, the sadness….

For 3 days and 3 nights, they spoke the names of all those who had fought long and lost much before the Great Lightning. Then, everynight, the oldest hand of the city picks 2 names, 2 lesbians who have the mission to tell in turn without stopping, their story or the story of their family.

First name Sanza, she says:

My name is Sanza which means “Season”. My grandmother named me that way so that I don’t forget that my black skin is not a costume, it doesn’t fall like leaves in autumn, it can’t be confused with the one that burns under the summer sun. I am not black by choice, by envy, by mood…

To be black is not a cape, not a garment that one wears during a demonstration.

It’s not a profile picture, it’s not the new fashion trend, it’s not next spring’s color, it’s not a usurpation, it’s not a penchant, it’s not a complaint nor a nightmare that prevents you from sleeping peacefully. It’s me, just me, Sanza.

Before the Great Lightning, we heard all kinds of things, in addition to the violence in a man’s world an​d the beatings and injustices, we had to stand up to the winds of prejudice even in our communities.

We were told: “We are all the same. To be a lesbian is not the same…and after all, are we not all lesbian ? One can be a little bit lesbian once in a while”.

I would answer: “I don’t know if we are the same or even if “being a lesbian” is declared, is chosen with a snap of the fingers, what is certain is that if it is a choice, it is always a struggle, a resignation, a renunciation of the quietness of family, friends, work, society as a whole. Everything always has to be redone. To be rebuilt. To be reconstructed. Always and inevitably, even within feminism and even between the lines of good resolutions for equality”.

We were told: “You are cute, so pretty, but being a lesbian, what an idea, what a waste for the world ! »

I would an​swer, “What world is this? The o​ne where we have to fight for our freedoms? The one where we have to debate for an inch of independence? Working twice, three times more without almost any recognition? Walking the corridors, brightening up meetings, proving, debating almost begging for a few pennies ? »

We were told: “You complain all the time, you underline your differences, it’s normal that you are on the margins, a minority within the minority”.

So I stopped answering and joined the Dyke Force.

Around the fire, the women had greeted Sanza’s story with laughter, applause and youh-youh of all kinds. Then another woman took the floor.

Noura

My name is Noura. Light. I was born at night under a roof glittering with stars. One more dyke in a city between mountains and sea. Before the Great Lightning, I lived in search of the limit, in search of a happiness different from the one served in a kit or a can. With my imperfect body, my head in a storm, and with my desires in complete disorder.

I have cherished each of my cravings, with the proud vanity of the oppressed. To ransack everything, to burn everything and to watch the last letters of the patriarchy burn with a pyromaniac appeasement. This is what my life was like before the Great Lightning.

Before living with you in this city.

Then came the night when I caught desire in the apple of blue, green, brown and black eyes.. A mischievous hip, a lost hand, a murderous smile and the evils that predicted a future made of sweet lips.

One night. Thousands of nights. Her body against mine. Bodies by the thousands, deformed, out of the norm. Bodies that squeeze together with pleasure, a zipper, a hand, fingers that find, a neck, chewed lips. A breast, a fall, a shoulder, blood flowing in. Temples beating to the rhythm of the pleasure that rises from the lower back, the hollow of the kidneys. Time stands still. The creaking of two bodies, a thousand bodies lost in sweat, thousand bodies that don’t give a damn about the world. Spread apart, suspended, skins subtracted from the eyes of men. Our lives that explode in kisses that bless the goddess cyprine.

At the time, every day, we heard some people say: “You are too provocative! Live hidden if you don’t want people to look at you with lustful eyes! »

Every day we would hear: “Your embraces disgust us, they disturb the natural order of things”.

So I joined, we joined the Dyke force and we loved each other more and more.

On the 3rd evening, in the city with no flags, no anthem, on that night of fire, the lesbians got up. They danced as close as possible to one another and sang every word hanging on trees, in the rivers, in the heart of an apple, etc.

Happy to live in a world that has finally changed.

There/ is our radicality, in our lesbian bodies, imperfect body with its darkness, its incapacities, with its wrinkles and stretch marks. With its impulses, its beauty, its radiance and its extraordinary banality.
Our revolutions lie in our loves, our sexualities. In the political and assumed hedonism.

This is our utopia: to enjoy, enjoy and enjoy endlessly and to populate the world with our stories.

To be continued…

 

Text by Joelle Sambi Nzeba (download here) (Watch the performance here)

Art by Camille Nestor Josie

The EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community will present today the first ever research focusing on lesbian lives and realities in Europe, titled: The State of Lesbian Organizing and the Lived Realities of Lesbians in the EU and the Accession Countries.

This research comes at a time in which the awareness around the exclusion and invisibility of lesbians is growing, and as an increasing number of stakeholders express willingness to engage in a more meaningful way on advancing human rights and visibility of lesbians.

Yet, even though societies and movements in the EU, and to some extent the accession countries, have come a long way in advancing the rights of LGBTI persons and women’s rights, lesbians still face strong discrimination, violence and stigma. Lesbians are one of the most marginalized, vulnerable and invisible social groups, affected by patriarchal gender norms, misogyny, sexism and lesbophobia, which is still widespread throughout the EU and the accession countries.

The lack of capacities, strategic and sustained mobilization of the lesbian movement is hindering effective impact on national authorities, policy reform and decision-making, which is further exacerbated by lack of awareness, data, impact assessment and in some contexts, the political will of decision makers, which in turn results in lesbian-specific issues being unrecognized and absent from policy-making.

The work has been conducted from October 2019 to January 2020. Since the start of the research, the Coronavirus pandemic has re-shuffled the global list of priorities and exacerbating the already existing oppressions and violence experienced by minority groups, like people of color, women, people with disabilities, LGBTI and queer persons. The global crisis has affected lesbians as everyone else, but also in so many specific and intersectional ways.

This research is the starting point to fill the gaps. You will find in it an analysis of three main areas: the history of the European lesbian movements, existing data on lesbians, and the state of affairs of lesbian organizing.

The EL*C, would like to use this opportunity to acknowledge the amazing contribution of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, one of the main actors in Europe working to counter lesbian invisibility. The study that we were able to conduct during almost half a year was made possible thanks to its willingness, visionary political objectives and support.

 

Find the Short Version here after. A Full Version of this report will be available very soon:

[embeddoc url=”https://europeanlesbianconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/The-State-of-Lesbian-Organising-1.pdf” download=”all” text=”Lesbian Organising and the Lived Realities”]

 

The EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community will present today the first ever research focusing on lesbian lives and realities in Europe, titled: The State of Lesbian Organizing and the Lived Realities of Lesbians in the EU and the Accession Countries.

This research comes at a time in which the awareness around the exclusion and invisibility of lesbians is growing, and as an increasing number of stakeholders express willingness to engage in a more meaningful way on advancing human rights and visibility of lesbians.

Yet, even though societies and movements in the EU, and to some extent the accession countries, have come a long way in advancing the rights of LGBTI persons and women’s rights, lesbians still face strong discrimination, violence and stigma. Lesbians are one of the most marginalized, vulnerable and invisible social groups, affected by patriarchal gender norms, misogyny, sexism and lesbophobia, which is still widespread throughout the EU and the accession countries.

The lack of capacities, strategic and sustained mobilization of the lesbian movement is hindering effective impact on national authorities, policy reform and decision-making, which is further exacerbated by lack of awareness, data, impact assessment and in some contexts, the political will of decision makers, which in turn results in lesbian-specific issues being unrecognized and absent from policy-making.

The work has been conducted from October 2019 to January 2020. Since the start of the research, the Coronavirus pandemic has re-shuffled the global list of priorities and exacerbating the already existing oppressions and violence experienced by minority groups, like people of color, women, people with disabilities, LGBTI and queer persons. The global crisis has affected lesbians as everyone else, but also in so many specific and intersectional ways.

This research is the starting point to fill the gaps. You will find in it an analysis of three main areas: the history of the European lesbian movements, existing data on lesbians, and the state of affairs of lesbian organizing.

The EL*C, would like to use this opportunity to acknowledge the amazing contribution of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, one of the main actors in Europe working to counter lesbian invisibility. The study that we were able to conduct during almost half a year was made possible thanks to its willingness, visionary political objectives and support.

 

Find the Short Version here after. A Full Version of this report will be available very soon:

[embeddoc url=”https://europeanlesbianconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/The-State-of-Lesbian-Organising-1.pdf” download=”all” text=”Lesbian Organising and the Lived Realities”]

 

 

The European Union takes a major step for the rights of lesbians and LGBTIQ people with its first LGBTIQ Strategy

Today is an historical moment for the rights of LGBTIQ persons in Europe, and beyond. For the very first time, the European Union launches an LGBTIQ Strategy for 2020-2025. And, the very good news is: lesbians were not overlooked.

This LGBTIQ Strategy sets out a series of targeted actions across four pillars: Tackling discrimination against LGBTIQ people; Ensuring LGBTIQ people’s safety; Building LGBTIQ inclusive societies; and Leading the call for LGBTIQ equality around the world.

In Europe, 57% of lesbians have been harassed in the past five years (according to the 2019 European Fundamental Rights Agency Survey). For years, EL*C has been asking national and international institutions to act. For the first time, this new LGBTIQ Strategy is calling for specific actions to tackle simultaneously gender-based discrimination and violence, as well as the prejudice and violence experienced by LBTI women on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. We thus commend the recognition of the intersectionality and the multiple oppressions faced by lesbians, and the need for specific actions towards socio-economic empowerment, access to health services and funding opportunities for lesbians.

In general, in Europe, 43% of LGBT people declared that they felt discriminated against in 2019, compared to 37% in 2012 .

The murder of a 28 year old lesbian in Italy (Elisa Pomarelli killed in 2019), the lesbian couple attacked in Amsterdam (August 2019), the lesbophobic attack at the hearth of Brussels’ European neighbourhood (in September this year ), but also the police violence committed by Polish authorities against LBTI women as well as the massive wave of lesbophobia on the French social media in the past weeks following the publication of a book on lesbians, are as many examples of the level of hate speech and hate crimes targetting lesbians, that need to be adressed far more actively by the institutions. Outside of the EU, the attacks against the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Conference held in Ukraine in April 2019 and the recent arrest of a lesbian activist in Belarus (Vika Bran) call for concerted efforts among international institutions working on human rights and the rule of the law, and require a strong and unequivocal political stance to counter these alarming trends.

We welcome the EU LGBTIQ Strategy 2020-2025 as a milestone, opening new avenues of cooperation between civil society and the European institutions, and we will ensure that the promises of the strategy do not remain vain, but are materialized into concrete measures for lesbians.

 

Contact: info@lesbiangenius.net
www.europeanlesbianconference.org
EL*C, the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community, is the European and Central Asian lesbian NGO Network

Download the full LGBTI 2020-2025 Strategy

 

 

The European Union takes a major step for the rights of lesbians and LGBTIQ people with its first LGBTIQ Strategy

Today is an historical moment for the rights of LGBTIQ persons in Europe, and beyond. For the very first time, the European Union launches an LGBTIQ Strategy for 2020-2025. And, the very good news is: lesbians were not overlooked.

This LGBTIQ Strategy sets out a series of targeted actions across four pillars: Tackling discrimination against LGBTIQ people; Ensuring LGBTIQ people’s safety; Building LGBTIQ inclusive societies; and Leading the call for LGBTIQ equality around the world.

In Europe, 57% of lesbians have been harassed in the past five years (according to the 2019 European Fundamental Rights Agency Survey). For years, EL*C has been asking national and international institutions to act. For the first time, this new LGBTIQ Strategy is calling for specific actions to tackle simultaneously gender-based discrimination and violence, as well as the prejudice and violence experienced by LBTI women on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. We thus commend the recognition of the intersectionality and the multiple oppressions faced by lesbians, and the need for specific actions towards socio-economic empowerment, access to health services and funding opportunities for lesbians.

In general, in Europe, 43% of LGBT people declared that they felt discriminated against in 2019, compared to 37% in 2012 .

The murder of a 28 year old lesbian in Italy (Elisa Pomarelli killed in 2019), the lesbian couple attacked in Amsterdam (August 2019), the lesbophobic attack at the hearth of Brussels’ European neighbourhood (in September this year ), but also the police violence committed by Polish authorities against LBTI women as well as the massive wave of lesbophobia on the French social media in the past weeks following the publication of a book on lesbians, are as many examples of the level of hate speech and hate crimes targetting lesbians, that need to be adressed far more actively by the institutions. Outside of the EU, the attacks against the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Conference held in Ukraine in April 2019 and the recent arrest of a lesbian activist in Belarus (Vika Bran) call for concerted efforts among international institutions working on human rights and the rule of the law, and require a strong and unequivocal political stance to counter these alarming trends.

We welcome the EU LGBTIQ Strategy 2020-2025 as a milestone, opening new avenues of cooperation between civil society and the European institutions, and we will ensure that the promises of the strategy do not remain vain, but are materialized into concrete measures for lesbians.

 

Contact: info@lesbiangenius.net
www.europeanlesbianconference.org
EL*C, the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community, is the European and Central Asian lesbian NGO Network

Download the full LGBTI 2020-2025 Strategy