EU Commission To Put Forward A Strategy To Strengthen LGBTQ Rights

A disturbing trend took hold in Poland last year, one that sent shockwaves throughout the European Union and beyond.

In the previous year, around 100 Polish municipalities passed resolutions opposing LGBTQ rights and prominently displayed "LGBTQ-Free Zone" signs at their entrances.

As a consequence, the European Union (EU) has taken financial measures in response.

Six of these municipalities have been sanctioned for their anti-LGBTQ stance thanks to the work of Helena Dalli, the European Commissioner for Equality, who has been instrumental in the EU’s decision-making.

Dalli had affirmed that “EU values and fundamental rights must be respected by member states and public authorities.”

When I covered these unprecedented EU sanctions, I wondered whether they would continue and whether other sanctions would emerge.

Well, today, here’s the beginning of an answer.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen not only recently took a stand for the LGBTQ community but also announced a new strategy to strengthen LGBTQ rights in Europe.

Ursula von der Leyen Took A Stand For LGBTQ Rights

Ursula von der Leyen is the very first official representative of the European Union to take a stand for the rights of LGBTQ people.

Von der Leyen said in a speech at the European Parliament in September that “LGBTI-free-zones are humanity-free zones and have no place in our union.”

“I will not rest when it comes to building a union of equality,” she added. “A Union where you can be who you are and love who you want–without fear of recrimination or discrimination.”

“Because being yourself is not your ideology,” she said. “It’s your identity. And no one can ever take it away.”

The Situation Is Getting Worse In Europe

Unfortunately, violence and discrimination against LGBTQ people are not new facts, but over the past few years, everyone will have observed a growth of these hateful phenomena within Europe.

It must be said that the existing laws of the European Union do not prevail over the laws of the member countries.

Discrimination against the LGBTQ community is supposed to be prohibited within the EU, but this is not always respected.

I often ask myself what is the point of these European laws?

Remember what happened in Russia in 2007?

Vladimir Putin and his government implemented a policy banning “LGBTQ propaganda”.

From now on, rallies or promotion of the LGBTQ community such as holding hands in public space or organizing Pride Marches are prohibited.

The European Union has criticized this policy, but Russia has not cared about its opinion and has continued to do so.

Nothing could prevent the law from being passed.

Towards A New Strategy?

It seems things may be on the verge of heading in the right direction.

European commissioner for equality, Helena Dalli, told Matt Beard, executive director of LGBTQ advocacy group AllOut, that the EU is carefully considering taking action.

And, as I said in my introduction, the information was confirmed by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who said the Commission would soon put forward a new strategy to strengthen LGBTQ rights in Europe.

There Is An Urgency

It makes you dream because there is definitively urgency:

• Russia plans to arrest gay dads who used surrogate mothers to conceive their children.
• the new Minister of Ecology in Poland has just compared the “LGBT ideology” to Nazism.
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban rose up the other day against LGBTQ organizations that have adapted famous children’s stories and legends with LGBTQ characters and the government plans to ban adoption by same-sex couples.

THERE IS AN URGENCY.