Being LGBTQ+ should no longer be a taboo in 2020. LGBT people all over the world continue to face prejudice on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this sometimes includes hate, violence and discrimination. The European countries are divided among those with a really high score in the Rainbow index, and some with a really low score. But, how do these statistics reflect reality?
Foto: Victoria Borodinova
Every year, ILGA-Europe, the European advocate of LGBTQ+ people, publishes a Rainbow Index. The index ranks all European countries according to how LGBT-friendly their legislation is. The aim is to make LGBT people's lives as fair and equal as possible. The rainbow index ranks the countries on a scale from 0 to 100 percent. The higher the score, the more a country is moving towards equal rights for LGBT's. 0 percent is total discrimination and violation of human rights and 100 percent, on the other hand, is respect for human rights and includes full equality.
Facts and figures
The scores are based on a number of criteria that can be placed under six different categories. These are the anti-discrimination and equality in a country, the family's reaction to an LGBTQ+ family member, the number of hate actions against them, the legal recognition of a person's gender, accepting the sincere appearance of an LGBT, respecting a person's choice about how to lead a private life and the treatment of asylum seekers belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. In total there are 49 countries that are quoted on this list.
Belgium occupies second place in the ranking with a score of 73 percent. That's certainly not bad, but they still have a large margin to grow. The perfect example is number one on the list, Malta. The country scores no less than 89 percent and is therefore on its way to complete equality for the LGBTQ+ community. Serbia is doing much worse in terms of score: 33 percent. According to the report of ILGA Europe, violence and hatred against LGBT people is still a serious problem in Serbia. In 2019, there were 51 cases in which LGTBs faced discrimination, harassment, and violence, 22 of those cases were physical attacks.
"Attacks happen every day, many cases stay unresolved"
The situation of the LGBTQ+ community in Serbia is significantly different from the situation in Belgium. The coordinator of the Pride Info Center, Jovan Ilić, says that the LGBTQ+ community in Serbia is in a much better situation than ten years ago.
"Currently, there is an anti-discrimination law that should be used in the case of discrimination or physical attacks, but it is rarely used. It has probably been used less than five times. Belgrade is much more advanced than the rest of Serbia. There are many places, like the Pride Info Center, where people gather. The number of such places is growing. The number of LGBTQ+ artists is also growing, together with the number of spaces for their artistic expression", said the coordinator of the Pride Info Center.
Ilić says that the LGBTQ+ community in Serbia faces problems and discrimination on a daily basis and that one of the bigger problems is that there is no Law on the Regulation of Same-Sex Partnerships, although the proposal of the law exists.
"Attacks happen every day, both physically and verbally. There are many reported cases that will not be resolved. A lot of people keep silent about the attacks because they are afraid of the reaction of the community. The Pride Info Center has been attacked a total of eleven times. People often come to ask us how to solve the problems of discrimination. Young people have problems when they come out, a lot of them are not accepted by family and friends. Some have even been evicted from their homes", he said.
Jovan Ilić adds that the mitigating circumstance is that there are a lot of gay bars, clubs, and organizations in Belgrade.
"The situation is much worse outside Belgrade and Novi Sad. "People are afraid to be visible and hide until they come to Novi Sad or Belgrade, where they no longer have to hide," concludes Ilić.
The Belgian reality
The relatively high figures for Belgium do not guarantee the well-being of LGBTQ+-people in the country. "There is still a lot of work to be done. It is not because Belgium comes second statistically that there is no more prejudice and discrimination. There is still homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia. We still have to work on that", says Jeroen Thierrens from vzw Joen. With their campaign, Paars or Purple, they encourage equality in university college and secondary schools all over the country. The colour purple comes last in the rainbow flag, it symbolises spirit. May 17 is conventionally called the Spirit Day. On that day people show their respect and recognition for the LGBTQ+ community, whether they are part of it are not.
Joen’s aim with their project is to educate schools about equality, discrimination towards LGBTQ+ people, and to normalise the subject. Among other things, they do that by encouraging schools to wear something purple on the Spirit Day. "Our aim is to educate the youth on what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ+-community and how you can be an ally. For the Paars project, we made around 65 thousand purple wristbands. Next edition we will reach an even higher number with about a hundred thousand. Each year more cities are engaging more with LGBTQ+ organisations, so that means the education is still necessary if there’s such a high demand for it", Thierrens added. Joen also aspires to work outside of the school area. "We’ve got questions from youth movements in the West-Flemish city Knokke-Heist to also organise activities for young people".
"It takes a while for society to catch up"
Wieneke Claeys from LGBT organisation Çavaria explains that the Rainbow Map only handles the numerical data. That does not automatically mirror the welfare of the people. "The Rainbow map focuses on laws and other legal rights LGBTQ+ people have within a certain country, they don’t really take homophobic attacks or discrimination into account. It’s not because a country has legalised same-sex marriage and there are laws to protect LGBT’s that that everything suddenly runs on wheels," Claeys says.
"It takes a while for society to catch up. Belgium did not get cleansed of all prejudice the day same-sex marriage got legalised. Coming out is still necessary, visibility of LGBTQ+ people is still necessary, we need to continue to do our best. We don’t need more laws to protect the community because we already have those. We need more societal acceptance and visibility. A world without homophobia would be a utopia, we can’t make that happen. We can, however, make the best of it and take care of each other and be accepting. We as an organisation focus on raising awareness to LGBTQ+ people at work and around their family and friends. We need to stop viewing it as a problem or something foreign. In the end, we’re all just people", he adds. In other words: a good base, but we’ve still got a long road to walk.
Maaike Mahieu – a personal testimony
"I was fifteen when I realised I did not have any interest in boys. It felt pretty normal to me. There are several people in my family who are gay, so it wasn't as taboo for me. It didn't take so long for me to come out. I first came out to my parents since they are the most important people in my life."
"My father accepted my identity quickly. He didn’t ask any questions, he just went with it. My mom had to come around a bit. She immediately thought of the absence of grandchildren. I could have kids if I wanted, but I’m not in that phase of my life yet. After a few days, she was able to place it. Some people just need some more time, that’s okay. They both accepted me in the end and I’m very lucky in that sense."
"To the outside world, I have been very quiet about it. To give an example, in my last relationship we hardly ever went outside together because we were afraid of being verbally or physically assaulted or attacked. She also was not out at the time publicly. When we did go out together, we acted like friends and not like a couple. I had a hard time with that because we are just people who are in love, it shouldn’t matter if two people are in love, it’s no one else’s business but theirs."
"Belgium is doing well in terms of rights and legal stuff. If you look at how far Belgium has come in the field of same-sex marriage then we have evolved far, but it can always be better and it should be. Of course, homophobia still exists here, I don’t think it will ever be completely gone. There are organisations where you can meet people with a similar identity, but I prefer to keep mine hidden away from the outside world. It’s a shame, straight people don’t have to think about that."
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Online Project Journalism is a collaboration between Howest University, Belgium, and the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. In non-corona times the students of Howest work together with the students in Novi Sad during an annual study trip. This year it was an online project, making sure the intercultural added value of working together to create a journalistic product is not lost.
Students of Novi Sad created journalism products together with students of Howest. This project connects Serbia and Belgium every year. The products are proof of cooperation between students.
The starting point for the journalistic product was the uprise and growing visibility and influence of the Black lives matter movement. BLM is exemplary of a growing awareness of identity and thus becomes more of an issue on the political agenda, in the cultural sector, and in people's personal lives. In this way, it was possible to work on various themes, such as the human race, sexual identity, living with a disability, political preference, etc.
This is the third product that is published from the workshop.
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