Equality for everyone?
Gays and lesbians in Europe
Challenges of a New Europe: diversity, dilemmas and directions
Inclusion and Exclusion in Contemporary European Societies, Edition 2006
Dubrovnik
May 2006
Evie van der Heijden
0252840
Content
1.
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 3
2.
CASES .................................................................................................................... 4
2.1
2.2
2.3
3.
GAY MARRIAGE IN THE NETHERLANDS .................................................................. 4
POLISH HOMOPHOBIA ......................................................................................... 5
GAY OUTLAWS IN ROMANIA ................................................................................ 5
DISCRIMINATION ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION ................................................. 8
3.1
3.2
3.3
RELIGION .......................................................................................................... 8
SCIENCE............................................................................................................ 8
PERSONAL PERCEPTIONS ..................................................................................... 9
4.
TOLERANCE IN EAST AND WEST ................................................................... 10
5.
CHANGE IN THE EAST ...................................................................................... 12
5.1
THE EU DIRECTIVE .......................................................................................... 12
6.
CONSEQUENCES FOR EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES .......................... 14
7.
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................... 15
8.
LITERATURE ....................................................................................................... 16
2
1. Introduction
‘Migrants to the Netherlands must view a gay kiss on DVD before residency
is granted. The DVD is shown to all potential migrants and forms part of the
official entrance test. The DVD aims to educate migrants on issues of gay
marriage, gay rights, domestic violence, female circumcision and the Dutch
Royal family, among many other issues.’1
Kissing homosexuals, holding hands, talking, laughing, and going out
together. Is this situation for you normal, or not? Or maybe more accurate,
does this situation exist in your country or not? People with homosexual or
bisexual orientations have long been, and are still, stigmatised. The situation
of homosexuals is different in all countries. The Netherlands is known for
their freedom and tolerance in general, but also regarding gay people.2 In
some other countries homosexuality is also getting more accepted, but in most
countries in Eastern Europe, homosexuals still struggle for their rights.
This paper deals with the situation regarding gay rights and the situation
homosexuals have to live in, in Western and Eastern European countries. In
this paper I will show why Eastern European countries quickly need to adopt
rights for homosexuals. The central question that will be dealt with, is:
In what way is the situation regarding homosexuality in Eastern Europe
different from the situation in Western Europe, and what needs to be
changed in Eastern Europe?
In order to answer this question, this paper will first present the reader some
cases to get familiar with the subject and the situation in some countries. After
that the grounds for discrimination on sexual orientation will be investigated.
The following chapter will deal with the differences in toleration in Eastern
and Western European countries; subsequently the changes in and
consequences for Eastern Europe will be explained. The paper will end with a
conclusion in which the central question will be answered.
1
http://www.libertysecurity.org/article856.html, 04/04/06
Recently, there have been more reported offences toward homosexuals in the Netherlands. This can
be connected to other problems in the country and will therefore not be included in this paper.
2
3
2. Cases
To get an insight in the differences in Europe on the issue of gay rights, this
chapter will deal with some cases regarding homosexuals, in different
countries, to make the differences between these situations explicit.
2.1 Gay marriage in the Netherlands
In 2001 the Dutch introduced the gay marriage. This made the Netherlands
the first country in the world to introduce same-sex marriage. Only Dutch
nationals or resident foreigners living with a Dutch partner qualify for samesex marriages under the new law. Also excluded is the adoption of foreign
children by same-sex couples, in order to avoid confrontation with less liberal
nations. Still, the new law does allow gay couples to apply for court permission
to adopt children after living together for three years.3
Gay rights in this field are not limited to the Netherlands. It also didn’t all
start in the Netherlands. For instance, Denmark was the first country (1989)
that allowed same-sex partners to register their partnership and in that way
get the same rights as married couples.4 By now, several countries besides the
Netherlands allow same-sex couples to get married. This is the case in
Belgium (2003), the U.S state of Massachusetts (2004), Spain (2005), Canada
(2005) and South Africa (later this year). 5
Some countries recognize civil unions between gay partners and give same-sex
couples the same rights as married couples. These countries include (besides
Denmark) Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland. Several other countries,
mostly in Europe, give same-sex couples some, but only limited rights. For
instance, Germany gives couples the same inheritance and tenants’ rights as
married couples, France and Luxembourg give gay-couples some rights, but
not regarding taxes, inheritance and adoption. The United Kingdom gives
same-sex couples the same rights as married couples regarding pensions,
property, social security and housing.6
There are also some countries that offer some rights to same-sex couples,
which are far from full marriage equality, to be precise: Brazil, Croatia,
France, Hungary, Israel, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.7
Where the right to marry in the Netherlands was connected with the right to
adopt children, several other European countries allow gays to adopt children
without allowing them the full marriage right. Gay adoption is legal in
Sweden, the Netherlands, Andorra, Spain, England and Wales, Scotland and
Belgium (since April 21st 2006). Iceland, Norway, Germany and Denmark
allow "stepchild-adoption", which means that the same-sex partner can adopt
the child of his partner. Finally, in the Republic of Ireland and some other
3
http://www.justitie.nl/english/publications/factsheets/same-sex_marriages.asp, 26/03/06
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4081999.stm, 22/04/06
5
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4081999.stm, 22/04/06
6
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4081999.stm, 22/04/06
7
http://www.now.org/issues/marriage/global.html, 22/04/06
4
4
countries, individual persons, whether heterosexual or homosexual may apply
for adoption.8
2.2 Polish homophobia
The President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, has become the target of human
rights organizations after he rejected authorization for a Gay Pride, which
should have taken place in Warsaw in March 2005; at that time the
contemporary President was still the mayor of that city.9 Though the Gay
Pride was forbidden, some people still tried to go on with it. They were
confronted with chanted hate slogans including "We'll do with you what Hitler
did with the Jews" and "Gays to the gas chambers".10
Recently the Polish President and the head of Parliament created an even
more homophobic atmosphere, on Monday the 25th of March 2006 the
Warsaw police blockaded Le Madame, a very well-liked gay club and prepared
to send away its customers and shut the club down for good.11 The 200 people
who were inside the club at that time refused to leave, they stayed inside.
Polish police ended the weeklong occupation of the club by carrying out a final
break-in on March 31.12 To add to this, even more recently, on the 28th of
April, a gay tolerance march in Krakow has been attacked by a demonstration
of nationalists.13
Some critics say that homophobia is not uncommon in Poland because it is
such a Catholic country. Gay rights organisations blame the conservative Law
and Justice Party, which campaigned on traditional, family and Catholic
values, for making the situation worse.14
2.3 Gay outlaws in Romania
A survey published in October 2004 reveals that 43 percent of Romanians
believe homosexuality is a sickness and 36 percent say it should be illegal.15
In Romania, belonging to a sexual minority is connected with many social
stigmas. Because of this, only a small amount of gays and lesbians come out in
Romania and if they do, they only come out to a few people like their group of
close friends, their family, and less often to their colleagues or other
acquaintances, and even more rarely (but never completely), to the whole
community.16
In general, a rather high amount of public homophobia marks the Romanian
mass media. This is especially shown by the high amount of attention in
articles that is given to gay violations of the law compared to the low amount
8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_adoption, 22/04/06
http://www.poland.pl/news/article,Gay_protesters_disrupt_Polish_president's_lecture_in_Berlin,id,21
4166.htm, 30/03/06
10
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1132674842587B214, 22/04/06
11
http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_512/apolishstonewall.html, 30/03/06
12
http://www.workers.org/2006/world/warsaw-0420/, 22/04/06
13
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4956604.stm, 29/04/06
14
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4956604.stm, 29/04/06
15
http://www.globalgayz.com/romania-news.html, 30/03/06
16
http://accept.ong.ro/presaeng.html#presa, 30/03/06
9
5
focussing on informative articles. The kinds of language and the stereotypes
that are being used in these articles make sure that the negative attitudes and
in toleration towards homosexuals and other minorities can maintain and that
stigmatisation of these groups can continue. But in addition, it works the
other way around, the homophobia that the media shows is also an expression
of the homophobia of the community.17
There have been some moves towards change over the last few years though.
In 1998 the European Union supported the amendments to the criminal code
relating to homosexuality that the Romanian Government proposed. The EU
supported these planned modifications and encouraged the Romanian
Parliament to pass them into law as soon as possible.18
In 2000 Romanian delegates voted to decriminalise homosexuality but they
decided to maintain a sentence in jail for explicit sexual activity. Since then,
some things have changed. Romania's first gay nightclub opened, even before
the Romanian government repealed a law in June that had made it a criminal
offence for gays to relate in this country. The above-mentioned figures and
statistics seem unable to stand in the way of the quickly emerging Romanian
gay scene.19
This emerging gay scene is interesting regarding the results of the latest World
Value Survey. In this Survey people from all over the world were asked the
following question: ‘Please tell me whether you think homosexuality can
always be justified, never be justified or something in between.’20 The table
below shows the percentage of people of different (Central and) Eastern and
Western European Countries who answered this question with ‘never
justifiable’.
Albania
Belgium
Croatia
Czech Republic
France
Germany
Great Britain
Greece
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands
Macedonia
Poland
Romania
Ukraine
Never justifiable (percentage)
West
East
80,9
28,2
63,2
26,4
23,8
21,7
24,6
24,0
88,5
29,9
6,8
75,7
61,3
79,8
70,6
17
http://accept.ong.ro/presaeng.html#presa, 30/03/06
http://europa.eu.int/abc/doc/off/bull/en/9805/p103020, 22/04/06
19
http://www.globalgayz.com/romania-news.html, 30/03/06
20
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org, 04/04/06
18
6
Western European answers seem to be somewhere between 20 and 30 percent
of people who think homosexuality is never justifiable. The Netherlands is an
exception with only 6,8% of people thinking homosexuality is never
justifiable.
In the Central and Eastern European countries between 60 and 80 percent
give ‘never justifiable’ as an answer. The Czech Republic, which seems to be
far more tolerant, is an exception. The Czech Republic is more on Western
European average. Hungary on the other hand is above the Eastern European
average.
7
3. Discrimination on sexual orientation
Discrimination on sexual orientation finds its origins in negative views of
homosexuality. These negative views can be divided in religious arguments,
‘scientific’ arguments and personal perceptions. Although in general opinions
are starting to be more tolerant towards homosexuality, negative conceptions
on homosexuality as a sin (Christian), a shame (Islam), disease (medicine) or
abnormality (psychiatry and the social sciences) still exist and are used in the
discussion to validate prejudiced activities.21 In this chapter these different
types of arguments will be discussed
3.1 Religion
Most commonly, religious arguments are used to justify discrimination
against lesbians and gay men. In the past people known as ‘sodomites’ and
‘witches’ were persecuted for their sexual orientation. These persecutions have
been banned since the 18th century, but religious ideas of homosexuality as a
sin are still used to justify discriminatory treatment.22 Some think
homosexuality has always been fought in all religious traditions. They also see
tolerance as a recent innovation of Western states. This is not completely true;
in fact, there has been no homogeneous anti-homosexual tradition in
Christianity or in other major religious and cultural traditions. Instead, there
have been periods of openness and tolerance and periods of repression.
Christianity for instance has been tolerant until the 13th century. Western
European Christianity in the 13th century persecuted homosexuals, Jews and
Muslims.23 Since Christian lesbians and gay men have started to organize
themselves, they are debating with various religious organizations. Although
some smaller Christian organizations have responded very positively towards
these efforts and are now changing their attitudes, most have kept their
negative views.24
The Quran condemns homosexual acts, without indicating a specific
punishment. The verses from the Quran condemning homosexuality are much
clearer than those that the Christians use. In general homosexuality in Islamic
countries is ‘not done’. To come out brings the risk of being rejected by your
family and most communities act as if gays and lesbians don’t exist.25 The
emphasis on family honour, the pressure to get married and strong family and
kinship networks all make it hard for Islamic gays to come out and talk openly
about their sexual orientation.26
3.2 Science
The belief that homosexuality is a disease or abnormality is not only a deeply
rooted belief, it was until recently officially accepted. Homosexuality was
listed as a disease in all the major classifications. Until 1981 homosexuality
21
Van der Veen & Dercksen (1993), p. 137
Van der Veen & Dercksen (1993), p. 137
23
Sanders (2002), p. 4
24
Van der Veen & Dercksen (1993), p. 155
25
http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/media/3d1xtlqrqm3t20nqhn2g/contributions/h/6/j/7/h6j708l275
r2482r.pdf, 04/04/06
26
A. Kam-Tuck Yip, p. 4
22
8
has been listed on the World Health Organization’s list of diseases. 27 By using
these sorts of medical arguments in discussions, homosexual men and women
were further stigmatised. These types of arguments even caused legalisation in
many societies. And because of the medical characteristics, some people
feared that openness about homosexuality would spread it, because they
thought it was contagious. Although this idea is still widespread in Europe,
there is no evidence that homosexuality can be obtained in this way.28
The above-mentioned assumptions lead in some countries to a criminalization
of homosexuality. The effects of this are far reaching. Firstly, homosexuals are
forced into illegality. Criminalization of homosexuality does not stop or reduce
the occurrence of homosexuality; it only criminalizes the people who behave
in a homosexual way. Secondly, homosexuality becomes largely invisible for
the general public.29 Therefore the stigma will more easily persist.
3.3 Personal perceptions
Besides the religious and scientific arguments, other, more personal,
arguments are used in the discussion on homosexuality. First, it is said that
marriage is an institution between one man and one woman. This argument
was for instance used in the USA when the gay marriage was discussed. The
problem with this argument is, that it is unclear who decides what the
definition of marriage is. Ask different people and you will get different
answers. A next argument, often used to prevent same-sex couples to raise or
adopt children, is that they don’t provide a good environment for raising kids.
This provides society with a new discriminative aspect, because in general
people can raise children without being tested on their parental skills first.
Murderers, convicted felons and even child molesters are allowed to marry
and raise kids. Scientific studies show that that the results of children that
were raised by either gay or lesbian couples are just as good as the results of
the children of straight couples. Psychology shows us that the love and
commitment of the parents make the difference, not their gender or their
sexual orientation. A third argument used in this discussion is that allowing
gay marriage will make way for, for instance, legalized incest and polygamy. In
real life this argument has proven to be untrue, because this didn’t happen in
countries that allow same-sex marriage. Besides this, as mentioned before,
countries do allow for instance paedophiles and arm dealers to marry. A last
argument, which is connected to the religious arguments mentioned above, is
that gay marriage would force churches to marry gay couples when they have a
moral objection to doing so. Again, this argument is not true. Churches
already can refuse a couple, for any reason that suits them, which some of
them often do, and that won’t change by introducing the gay marriage. Some
churches continue to refuse to marry interracial couples, others interreligious
couples, and a few refuse couples with large age disparities and for numerous
other reasons.30
27
Sanders (2002), p. 8
Van der Veen & Dercksen (1993), p. 138
29
Van der Veen & Dercksen (1993), p. 139
30
http://www.bidstrup.com/marriage.htm, 22/04/06
28
9
4. Tolerance in East and West
In the previous chapter, the arguments against homosexuality were discussed.
Even though these arguments are still used often in all societies, the ‘never
justifiable’ answers in the chapter with factual cases and the possibilities for
gays to marry, adopt or to get the same judicial benefits as same-sex couples
show that Eastern European countries in general are less tolerant than their
Western neighbours. In this chapter the reasons for these differences will be
investigated.
The first reason that can be identified is the strong presence of the Church in
the Eastern European countries; this was already mentioned in the case of
Poland. After the communist era, the Church was freed from political party
control. The Church in Eastern European countries became more and more
influential.31 The Church became powerful in the field of decision-making, but
also in the thinking of people, especially since Church attendance in these
countries rapidly increased. Because of this, conservative perspectives, for
instance on abortion, sex education and homosexuality, were strengthened. 32
In Romania for example, the Orthodox Church has been campaigning
aggressively against same-sex relations and the abolishment of anti-gay laws,
exercising an enormous influence over the members of Parliament,
Government, and on the general public.33
The second explanation for the less tolerant environment in Eastern Europe is
the lack of representative institutions. In Eastern European countries gays and
lesbians are not very well organized, the amount of representative
organisations is limited and the organisations that do exist are still relatively
young. For instance, the Romanian organisation representing gays: ACCEPT,
was registered in 1996 and the Bulgarian gay organisation Gemini in 2004.34
Their Dutch counterpart, COC, already exists since 1946.35
A third cause for this relative intolerance is the communist past of these
countries. During the communist times, differences were suppressed and
perceived as a bad thing. Homosexuality was considered as a crime, it was
forbidden to even mention the phenomenon.36 Because of this suppression,
there was little toleration of the different. Even though communism is no
longer the policy, these perceptions haven’t disappeared and for that reason it
will take some time to create more toleration.
The fourth reason is that in these countries there is no education in this field,
if sexual education is already a taboo, education on homosexuality doesn’t
exist at all. Therefore, prejudices can persist and it is hard for people to make
a distinction between what homosexuality is and what it is not.
31
Stulhofer and Sandfort (2005), p. 8
Stulhofer and Sandfort (2005), p. 9
33
http://accept.ong.ro/foramoregayromania.html, 04/05/06
34
http://www.bgogemini.org/eng/page.php?id=4, 21/04/06
35
http://www.coc.nl/dopage.pl?thema=any&pagina=algemeen&algemeen_id=113, 20/04/06
36
http://www.gay.org.ua/about/gribanov.htm, 22/04/06
32
10
A fifth explanation is that in Eastern European countries there are no openly
gay VIP’s. For instance, in the Netherlands there are gay television hosts, gay
radiomen, gay newspapers and magazines and gay politicians. Gay people are
widespread and people know, to some extent, who they are and what they are
like. The image of gay people in Eastern Europe on the other hand is restricted
to Gay Pride Parades in Western Europe and North America.37 There are for
instance no famous gay Romanians; this is one of the reasons prejudice can
sustain.
37
http://accept.ong.ro/foramoregayromania.html, 04/04/06
11
5. Change in the East
As shown in the presentation of the factual cases, the Eastern European
countries do face some changes towards more toleration, mostly in the field of
law. In this chapter the question why these Eastern European countries get
more tolerant is answered.
In general there are two reasons for change in the Eastern European
countries, the first is change initiated from inside these countries, the second
reason is external pressure.
In the first case, the change from communism towards more democracy and
pluralism in these countries changed public opinion. Since the end of
communism, Eastern European countries have seen a change of their
dominant value system into a more individualistic society.38 Because of this,
more and more openness towards the acceptance of gay people can be noticed,
especially among young people.39 People nowadays are more inclined to
pursue their own interest; therefore diversity becomes more common and
more accepted, also (to a certain extent) towards homosexuality.
In the second case, change is lead from outside of these countries by pressure
coming from the European Union. The prospect of entering the European
Union has got a big influence on these countries’ policy and decision-making.
The future entry into the EU has led to legal innovations regarding gender and
sexuality.40 We saw this in the case of Romania, where the EU supported the
proposed amendments and encouraged the Romanian Parliament to pass
them into law as soon as possible.41 To specify the influence of the EU, the
next paragraph will present a Directive from the European Union from 1994.
5.1 The EU Directive
The Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs of the European
Parliament completed a report on equal treatment for gays and lesbians in the
European Community in 1993. This eventually resulted in a general
resolution, which was passed in the European Parliament in 1994.42
The resolution:43
- calls on the Member States to abolish all legal provisions which
criminalize and discriminate against sexual activities between persons
of the same sex;
- calls for the same age of consent to apply to homosexual and
heterosexual activities alike;
- calls for an end to the unequal treatment of persons with a homosexual
orientation under the legal and administrative provision of the social
security system and where social benefits, adoption law, laws on
38
Stulhofer and Sandfort (2005), p. 1/2
http://accept.ong.ro/foramoregayromania.html, 04/04/06
40
Stulhofer and Sandfort (2005), p. 12
41
http://europa.eu.int/abc/doc/off/bull/en/9805/p103020, 22/04/06
42
Sanders (2002), p. 8
43
Resolution on equal rights for homosexuals and lesbians in the European Community (1994)
39
12
inheritance and housing and criminal law and all related legal
provisions are concerned;
- calls upon all Member States to respect laws regarding freedom of
opinion, the press, information, science and art for homosexual
citizens;
- calls on the Member States to take measures and initiate campaigns
against the increasing violence perpetrated against homosexuals;
- calls upon the Member States to take measures and initiate campaigns
to combat all forms of social discrimination against homosexuals
The resolution also says that European Commission should recommend
ending the barring of lesbian and homosexual couples from marriage or from
an equivalent legal framework and to end any restriction on the right of
lesbians and homosexuals to be a parent or to adopt or foster children.
Though this whole resolution is quite progressive, the most interesting part is
that most Member States do not yet allow gays to either marry or adopt
children. The current practice of a minority of the Member States is now
posed upon the majority and the future Member States. Since new Member
States need to adopt all European directives, they are forced to change their
laws. This way European directives have a great influence on the policy and
decision-making of Eastern European countries.
13
6. Consequences for Eastern European countries
As seen in the presented Romanian and Polish case, in order to create more
tolerance and to be able to adopt the European directive, Eastern Europe
needs to change a lot regarding homosexuality and the perceptions regarding
this subject. Public opinion shows little acceptation and laws are not adapted
to European standards yet. This chapter will deal with the things that need to
change in Eastern Europe.
Firstly, these countries need to create representative organisations. In those
countries that don’t have such organisations yet, they need to be developed.
Representative organizations will better be able to change public opinion by
showing a more realistic image of homosexuality. These organisations need to
fight for the rights of homosexuals. Besides this, Easter European
homosexuals, by creating representative institutions, will be able to represent
themselves on European level, which nowadays is not the case.
A second kind of institution that needs to be established is a safe house. This
needs to be done, in order to build a positive self-identity in a safe
environment. This item was mentioned by ACCEPT, a Romanian
representative organization for homosexuals. The intention is to increase selfesteem by social networking and educational activities.44 If homosexuals get
the possibility to build up their self-esteem, they’ll be better able to show the
country their personality and prove the prejudices wrong. They’ll also be able
to better fight for their equal rights.
A third addition is to provide information on the subject of homosexuality.
Nowadays, there are few opportunities to find correct information about
homosexuality in most Eastern European countries.45 Therefore, prejudice
and discriminations will more easily persist. The provision of honest and clear
information will serve society with a more realistic image and will provide
(young) gay people with the necessary foundation to build a more positive
self-image.
The last change that is necessary is a change of public opinion on
homosexuality. The previously mentioned measures will already change
public opinion. Besides this, contacting social and political opinion leaders
and mass media can do this. As mentioned before in some Eastern European
countries, homosexuality has been associated with for instance paedophilia
and the image of gay people on television restricted to Gay Pride Parades in
other countries. These countries do not yet have local openly gay VIP’s. The
media and opinion leaders can work together to counteract the abovedescribed images.
44
45
http://accept.ong.ro/foramoregayromania.html#chapter%202, 04/04/06
http://accept.ong.ro/foramoregayromania.html#chapter%202, 04/04/06
14
7. Conclusion
After investigating several aspects of homosexuality in Eastern and Western
Europe, the central question of this paper, in what way is the situation
regarding homosexuality in Eastern Europe different from the situation in
Western Europe, and what needs to be changed in Eastern Europe, can now
be answered.
As the cases show, the situation in the Netherlands is far more tolerant than in
the Eastern European countries, also public tolerance is higher in this country.
This can be demonstrated by the rights regarding marriage and adoption in
Western European countries compared to the situation regarding these
subjects in Eastern Europe. Besides this, surveys show that public acceptation
in the West is higher than in the East.
Discrimination on sexual orientation finds its origins in negative views of
homosexuality. These negative views can be divided in religious arguments,
‘scientific’ arguments and personal perceptions. Although mainstream opinion
is starting to be more tolerant towards homosexuality, negative conceptions
on homosexuality still exist and are used in the discussion to justify
discriminatory behaviour in all countries. Though discrimination exists in all
countries, intolerance in Eastern Europe is bigger than in Western Europe.
The reasons for this are the strong presence of the Church, the lack of
representative institutions, the communist past of these countries and the
fourth reason is that there is no education in this field in these countries. A
fifth reason is that in Eastern European countries there are no openly gay
VIP’s.
Even though the situation in Eastern Europe is not very tolerant, there are
some changes noticeable towards more acceptation. In general there are two
reasons for change in the Eastern European countries, the first is coming from
inside the countries, the second from outside. In the first case, the change
from communism towards more democracy and pluralism in these countries
changed public opinion. In the second case, change is lead from outside of
these countries by pressure coming from the European Union.
As seen in the Romanian and Polish factual case, in order to adopt the
European directive, Eastern Europe needs to change a lot regarding
homosexuality. These countries need to create representative organisations
and they need to establish a safe house. Another thing these countries need to
do is to provide information on the subject of homosexuality. The last change
that is necessary is that of public opinion on homosexuality.
15
8. Literature
Books
 Stulhofer, A., Sandfort, T., 2005, Sexuality and gender in times of
transition: an introduction, draft version, in: Stulhofer, A., and
Sandfort, T., Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe
and Russia, New York, Haworth Press
 Veen, E. van der, Dercksen, A., 1993, The social situation in the
Member States, in: Waaldijk, K. and Clapham, A., Homosexuality: a
European Community Issue, Essays on Lesbian and Gay Rights in
European Law and Policy, Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
Articles
 Sanders, D., 2002, Getting Lesbian and Gay Issues on the International
Human Rights Agenda
 Kam-Tuck Yip, A., Uniquely Positioned? Lived Experiences of Lesbian,
Gay, and Bisexual Asian Muslims in Britain, School of Social Sciences,
Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK
Other
 Resolution on equal rights for homosexuals and lesbians in the
European Community, OJ 1994 C 61/40, Res. No A3-0028/94 (8 Feb.
1994)
Internet
 http://accept.ong.ro/presaeng.html#presa, 30/03/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_adoption, 22/04/06

http://europa.eu.int/abc/doc/off/bull/en/9805/p103020, 22/04/06

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4081999.stm, 22/04/06

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4956604.stm, 29/04/06

http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/media/3d1xtlqrqm3t20nqhn2g
/contributions/h/6/j/7/h6j708l275r2482r.pdf, 04/04/06

http://www.bgogemini.org/eng/page.php?id=4, 21/04/06

http://www.bidstrup.com/marriage.htm, 22/04/06

http://www.coc.nl/dopage.pl?thema=any&pagina=algemeen&algemee
n_id=113, 20/04/06

http://www.europarl.eu.int/news/expert/infopress_page/016-433017-1-3-902-20060113IPR04270-17-01-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm, 25/03/06

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_512/apolishstonewall.html,
30/03/06
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
http://www.gay.org.ua/about/gribanov.htm, 22/04/06

http://www.globalgayz.com/romania-news.html, 30/03/06

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1
132674842587B214, 22/04/06

http://www.justitie.nl/english/publications/factsheets/samesex_marriages.asp, 26/03/06

http://www.now.org/issues/marriage/global.html, 22/04/06

http://www.poland.pl/news/article,Gay_protesters_disrupt_Polish_p
resident's_lecture_in_Berlin,id,214166.htm, 30/03/06

http://www.workers.org/2006/world/warsaw-0420/, 22/04/06

http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org, 04/04/06
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