Queer or not

Europe is the most liberal place to be in if you believe in gay rights, but some issues persist

MEHRU JAFFER/ Hardnews/ VIENNA

HOMOSEXUALS ARE NO longer burnt or beheaded in Europe but their struggle against homophobia continues. The latest setback for Austria's homosexual community came in July after the government collapsed while the draft of a bill on same-sex marriages was under review by Parliament. It was hoped that once the bill is passed, the first same sex marriage could be celebrated by September 2009. But political confusion has drowned that dream for the moment. New elections will be first held on September 28 this year before the same bill is allowed to reappear in Parliament.
The main concern today is a victory of conservative politicians in the next elections. "The same-sex bill is not a priority for any conservative government. The bill can be easily forgotten, pushing our struggle back by 10 to 15 years," Christian Hoegl, 38 and president, Homosexual Initiative Vienna (HOSI), fears. HOSI is Austria's oldest and most important gay non-governmental organisation (NGO) and has been a severe critic of racism, xenophobia and discrimination for more than two decadesz. The organisation was recently taken to court for calling a Right-wwing Member of Parliament "a Nazi myrmidon".
Despite disappointments, the show continues.
The annual Gay Pride Rainbow Parade attracted a colourful crowd of 120,000 people in early July this year. The number was 100,000 last year, making Hoegl, a graphic designer, gleefully point out that homosexuals are a minority group but not an insignificant number. "The government may, or may not, be ready to remove all discrimination from society but the city of Vienna is," said Susan Frauenberger, Councillor for Women and Integration Affairs in the office of Michael Haupl, Mayor of Vienna, and a participant in the parade.
Frauenberger told Hardnews that community leaders must take initiative and be the first to say no to homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. It is mainly Christian fundamentalists, ultra-nationalists and conservatives who oppose homosexuality here. However, an occasion like the public parade reinforces solidarity and strengthens the on-going fight for equality and human rights.
"It is very important for young people to watch the parade and to see us celebrate life without fear. The parade is an occasion to show our pride in who we are," said Daniela Turic, 28, a high school teacher. A predominantly Catholic country, Austria is not fanatically religious. Although it still has to approve the same-sex marriage law, the country is relatively liberal on social issues like abortion and homosexuality, having legalised both in the 1970s. Islam was recognised here as an official religion way back in 1912.
In recent times, the city of Vienna made the promise to recognise gay and lesbian partnerships. Although symbolic, the public recognition of homosexual rights by city authorities is a big inspiration and has intensified the lobbying to get legal approval for gay marriages. It is possible that the liberal spirit of Vienna is shaped by the presence of Dr Sigmund Freud and Dr Richard von Krafft-Ebing who lived here at the turn of the last century. The German-born Dr Krafft-Ebing studied homosexuality and cases of ‘sexual perversion' while Dr Freud tried to understand all aspects of human sexuality with the aid of psychoanalysis.
After the turbulent times of World War II, the 1970s saw a blossoming of gay and lesbian assertiveness here. Sodomy laws were lifted in 1971. Austria decriminalised homosexuality but at the same time imposed a ban on homosexual organisations, a gesture that was a painful reminder of laws imposed upon Austrians by the Nazis.
In defiance, HOSI was born in 1979. In 1996, the law that forbids homosexuals from any positive displays of their identity in public was lifted and, in the same year, HOSI organised the first gay pride parade here.
In fact, Europe is perhaps the most advanced continent in terms of gay and lesbian rights. Over the last two decades, lobbyists have made sure that the EU remains committed to the promotion of human rights. The European Parliament adopted a resolution in 2005 against homophobia with a majority of 468 votes in favour and 149 against. Today the institution is the main force behind the inclusion of rights of homosexuals as part of the political agenda on the continent.
Already in 1997, the Treaty of Amsterdam empowered the European community to take action against discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation. The employment directive of 2000 is the most important single legislative initiative in the history of homosexual rights. The directive binds all member states to introduce legislation to ban discrimination in employment, including on the basis of sexual orientation, by the end of 2003.
In 2001, ten million euros were marked by the EU to fight discrimination and the 1976 equal treatment directive was revised in 2002 to end discrimination based on gender identity, linked particularly to a transgender person's identity. The European Charter of Fundamental Rights was adopted in 2000 and is the first international human rights charter to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination. After years of campaigning, the European Commission finally proposed a new single anti-discriminative law in July this year that will provide blanket protection to all citizens against any kind of discrimination. Very symbolic is the opening of the first memorial in May this year to commemorate homosexual people killed by the Nazis-along with gypsies, Jehovah witnesses, Jews, political dissidents, and disabled people.
Situated close to the Brandenburg Gate, inside the zoo and across the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, the homosexual memorial is a grey rectangular block some four meters tall. One side has a small opening through which viewers can see a black and white film of two men kissing. "A simple kiss could land you in trouble," is the text accompanying the memorial in a country where homosexuality was illegal until 1969. Germany decriminalised same-sex relationships in 1994.
The exact number of people who were tortured and killed during World War II because of their sexual orientation is not known. It is estimated that the Nazis arrested approximately 54,000 homosexuals and 7,000 of them were killed in concentration camps. Linda Freimane, executive board member, International Lesbian and Gay Association-Europe (ILGA-Europe), admitted at the inauguration of the Berlin memorial that Europe is a safe place for homosexuals today, in comparison to other places where homosexuality is still considered a crime.
"We have not yet reached full equality but we sense the political will to get there. This is not enough. You must now not stay silent when other countries that have entered the EU or knock on its door violate the rights of their own citizens. Never forget those who live around the world in fear and despair-who face persecution, humiliation, imprisonment, and death for simply being who they are... I hope that foreign guests will be brought to this memorial as well when they are shown the beautiful city of Berlin."
Europe has indeed come a long way in its battle for individual rights. Today, in many European countries, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, along with other vulnerable groups, enjoy the protection of the state against prejudice, discrimination and violence. In many places in Europe, same-sex partners can register their partnership or get married. In some countries, the state also supports the wish of same sex people to become equal parents.
Homosexuality seems to have been gradually accepted as a natural aspect of life in large parts of Europe. However, in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, it is seen as a bigger problem than in the West. Like the Nazi regime before it, the Communists forbade all activities that did not conform to the political ideology of the day.
Gay culture, therefore, was forced to flourish underground. Since the collapse of Communism in 1989, many taboo activities have surfaced and are thriving-from pop music to religion. But homosexuality is not.
At this year's pride parade in Budapest, participants and the police were attacked by extremists who flung Molotov cocktails and acid that injured ten people. According to ILGA-Europe, a gay sauna was torched with petrol bombs in Budapest early July this year and, before that, a gay bar was attacked in the same city.
The pride parade in Slovenia ended in violence. The country is the first amongst the post Communist countries to have adopted a same-sex partnership law last June. The Czech Republic followed this year in March and held its first gay parade in July in which 20 people were hurt. Gay activists marched through Bucharest under police protection and in defiance of religious and far-Right groups to ban the annual event.
At two counter demonstrations organised against the ‘sin' in Romania, people were heard chanting ‘Romania does not want you...' The country decriminalised homosexuality in 2001. Activists find it odd that Eastern European countries are not shy when it comes to practising radical politics and conspicuous consumption but are reluctant to see two men walk hand in hand on the street, even in cities like Prague. This is understandable to some extent in a devoutly Catholic country like Poland. But in the atheist Czech Republic?
The attitude is seen as cultural conservatism. Apart from introducing legislation, the only other solution for orthodox communities is to engage in debate, dialogue and discussion in order to come to terms with a taboo topic like homosexual love.