LGBT rights in Europe are stagnating and, in some countries, regressing for the first time in a decade.
The European chapter of the advocacy group International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe) denounced the troubling state of the LGBT rights in the continent after releasing the 10th Rainbow Europe Map and Index.
The 2019 Rainbow Europe Map and Index, a monitoring tool designed to rank 49 countries in Europe on criteria such as their LGBT equality and non-discrimination laws, legal gender recognition and bodily integrity, protection from hatred and violence, family rights, and spaces in civil society, revealed that some countries are regressing as existing laws and policies disappeared.
Overall, the island of Malta scored the highest, topping the Rainbow Europe country ranking for the fourth year in a row, followed by Belgium, for the second year in the second spot. Third came Luxembourg, increasing its ranking by 17 spots year-on-year thanks to a “well-modified legal gender recognition law based on self-determination and a comprehensive national action plan.”
Ranking at the bottom of the 49 countries are Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Something doesn't seem right here. Yellow is interpreted as a "cautionary" or "neutral" color in the USA and Canada, and probably some other nations. Why color Germany and the Republic of Ireland "cautionary" - nations where people of the same sex can marry whom they love, and are very advanced in terms of acceptance of LGBT people? Why grade Italy at the same level as Romania -- just because there is no marriage equality? Why is Northern Ireland, which remains off limits for same sex marriage ahead of the Republic of Ireland on this map? Why focus on Europe when gay man are getting their heads chopped off in Saudi Arabia and continue to hang from ropes on hearsay charges in Iran? Whoever prepared this map was sloppy, and suffers from myopia when viewing European gay rights compared to the world as a whole.
ReplyDelete