Magazine / Current / Homosexuality / Article | 23/07/2008

Tying the Knot?

European laws are changing faster than European mentalities. But there are still deficits in Europe's legislation. It protects gays and lesbians only up to the point when they want to formalise their status as couples.

For homosexuals, the European continent provides an almost unique shield of protective measures. While eighty-six states all over the world continue to condemn sexual relations between two persons of the same sex, in the countries of the old continent homosexuality is no longer a punishable offence. In a public opinion survey conducted in 2007 only one percent of EU citizens claimed to have been the target of discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation.

Photo: AP

That this figure is so low is the result of pan-European legislation. Directive 78/2000 prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation; the French EU presidency wants to extend this law on equal treatment to cover the trade and services sectors, education, social insurance and social benefits. Gays and lesbians would then be just as well protected as potential victims of discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin. Eighteen EU member states have already taken this step.

And It's Good that Way

On paper Europe's homosexuals are in an enviable position. A majority of the population in France, Germany, Latvia and the Czech Republic don't care if their neighbours are homosexual. Slowly but surely, the right to exist of gays and lesbians has become something that is taken for granted, and no doubt the day will come when even in Romania and Malta some politician or other announces: "I'm gay, and it's good that way" - as Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit did when he "came out” in 2001. Indeed, many European politicians are open about their homosexuality nowadays: there's Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, the German minister Karin Wolff, the Dutch minister Joop Wijn, the President of the Wallonian Socialists Elio di Rupo, and Klara Ungar, former MP and member of the executive committee of the Hungarian Liberals.

Love in the Time of the EU

But when it comes to granting sexual minorities the right to get married or become parents there are still huge disparities. In this respect the levels of tolerance vary greatly. A couple that lives in the Netherlands does not live in the same Europe as a couple that lives in Poland. Although 44 percent of Europeans support same-sex marriage, the approval ratings vary from as much as 82 percent in the Netherlands to just 12 percent in Latvia. And while 68 percent of Dutch citizens would entrust homosexual couples with bringing up children, 93 percent of Poles flinch at the idea. These disparities are problematic because they reflect the varying legislation - in one country same-sex marriages are allowed, in another homosexual partnerships are not even recognised. Moreover, if homosexual Europeans do not wish to accept the idea of remaining unmarried, their right to freedom of movement, to which all Europeans are entitled, is curtailed. Only recently, a Frenchman automatically lost his citizenship after marrying a Dutchman. In the same situation the wife in a heterosexual marriage would have received dual citizenship. And in contrast to married heterosexual couples with children, two Dutchmen who are married to each other can't simply up sticks and move to Bulgaria, Cyprus or Slovakia, because their status as a married couple is not recognised in those countries.

Three Groups of Countries

In reality today's EU is split into three groups of countries: the first comprises those countries that grant homo- and heterosexuals the same rights (Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain). The second group recognises homosexual partnerships but does not offer them the same amount of support as partnerships between man and woman (France, Great Britain, Finland, Germany, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Hungary). The countries in the final group do not recognise homosexual partnerships at all (Austria, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Slovakia, Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland). So surprisingly, updating a country's national legislation does more to promote recognition of the rights of homosexual couples than the influence of historical or religious realities.

Blaise Gauquelin

Born in 1981, Blaise Gauquelin is a journalist for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation Radio & Television (ORF) in Vienna and correspondent for Radio France and ...
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