The year 2022 was the most violent for LGBTI people in Europe and Central Asia in the last ten years, warns the annual report of the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA-Europe).
The report, published on Monday 20 February, denounces the proliferation of politically motivated anti-LGBTI rhetoric. This rhetoric has fuelled an unprecedented increase in planned and deadly violent attacks, such as the attacks on LGBTI bars in Norway and Slovakia.
“We have seen proof that anti-LGBTI hate speech is not just the words of marginal leaders or would-be autocrats, but a real problem with dire consequences”, said Évelyne Paradis, Executive Director of ILGA-Europe, underlining that this phenomenon concerns both “countries where hate speech is rife” and those “where it is widely believed that LGBTI people are progressively accepted”.
While prosecutions are, in turn, on the rise, Ms Paradis calls on leaders to “proactively” address the “foundation of the problem, which is the proliferation of using hatred against LGBTI people for political gain”, rather than “reacting to its consequences”.
Furthermore, the report notes that progress in respecting the rights of LGBTI persons and their legal protection is generally driven by activists. “[They] are the central players in countries where progress has been made, as we’ve seen in Spain and Finland, where huge effort went into successfully keeping self-determined legal gender recognition on the right political track, despite fierce opposition,” adds Katrin Hugendubel, ILGA-Europe’s advocacy director.
This 12th edition of ILGA-Europe’s annual report looks at political, social and legislative developments in 54 countries in Europe and Central Asia.
To read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/5ei (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)