LGBT In Central and Eastern Europe

No passado dia 14 de maio, várias foram as plataformas de comunicação social portuguesa a noticiar o mais recente estudo da Agência dos Direitos Fundamentais da União Europeia (FRA), sobre a discriminação e crimes de ódio contra pessoas LGBTI+. Nas diferentes manchetes soava um regozijo de orgulho da liberdade sexual, que nos transportara para uma espécie de onda de segurança e confiança face às liberdades de género e sexual em Portugal. No entanto, os números que este estudo comporta mostram um desfazamento ao nível da realidade interseccional das pessoas LGBTI+, não abarcando uma série de minorias que constantemente são remetidas ao silêncio da invisibilidade. Este artigo pretende fazer uma retrospetiva do que falta cumprir em Portugal, após este ter sido classificado como o 7º país mais seguro ao nível da não-violência na União Europeia.

This master thesis examined the impact of the European Union on the perspectives of homosexuality by the Ukrainian political elite since the EuroMaidan revolution. Despite Ukraine still being a rather homophobic country (Martsenyuk, 2012; ILGA-Europe, 2017), the country introduced certain legal improvements for the LGBT-community.

Through fieldwork in Kyiv and Brussels in-depth interviews with experts were executed. These interviews were analysed through thematic discourse analysis. For all reforms the European Union was the main influencing factor. While issue-linking during the negotiations processes for visa-liberalisation and the Association Agreement seems to be the most effective tools, the pro-European spirit since the EuroMaidan revolution should not be underestimated as well.
While EU-influence clearly led to legal changes, both Ukrainian and European officials and activists determined that the changes were rather marginal. While new laws liberalised some policies towards LGBT-people, the Ukrainian society, including the Ukrainian parliament remain rather homophobic. The openness towards the LGBT-community seems to be limited to the executive branch of power. Hindering factors for the evolvement of LGBT-rights in Ukraine are religion, nationalism and the occupation by the Russian Federation and pro-Russian separatists in certain Ukrainian regions.

This master thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Jonathan Holslag.

In this article I ask why gay and lesbian people in Poland mourned their infamously homophobic president Lech Kaczynski, and, in turn, what it means to mourn one's own enemy. In examining this extraordinary case of national bereavement and the collective performance of grief, I point to complex models of attachment that position Polish homosexual subjects in a locus where they are able to enter the national discourse as subjects, and not only as abjects. I stress the role of identification rather than identity, relationality, processuality and performativity in understanding the relations between nationhood and homosexuality. Homosexual subjects attaining the rituals of national bereavement break the chains of interlinked subject positions and social expectations. In doing so, nationhood is rendered a “hybrid” space of identification for the homosexual subject. Consequently, mourning becomes an act of “queering” the nation, a wilful subversion of culturally and traditionally sanctioned performative recollections of nationhood (Polishness).

Background: There are for the time being no systematic studies exploring transgender and non-binary (TGNB) mental health in the Serbian context which, over the last three decades, has been characterized by profound social transformations. Method: We draw upon 15 semi-structured interviews with members of a TGNB self-help group operating in Belgrade, Serbia. The material was analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Results: We identified three elements of group operation: 1) information, support, and community, 2) navigating the med-ical/psychiatric system, and 3) dealing with gender binarism. While the group is important for helping its members navigate the medical system in terms of mental health professionals' expectations regarding "proper" candidates for gender affirmation procedures, it has a hard time escaping a gender binarism that characterizes its social context. Conclusions: Despite significant improvements in the situation of TGNB people concerning psychiatric gatekeeping and legal gender recognition, the TGNB community is still marginalized with mental health being one of the main areas of marginalization. Activist organizations' alternative forms of mental health care can help to transform mainstream mental health policies rendering them more sensitive to the needs of TGNB individuals.

Background There are for the time being no systematic studies exploring transgender and non-binary (TGNB) mental health in the Serbian context which, over the last three decades, has been characterized by profound social transformations. Method We draw upon 15 semi-structured interviews with members of a TGNB self-help group operating in Belgrade, Serbia. The material was analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Results We identified three elements of group operation: 1) information, support, and community, 2) navigating the medical/psychiatric system, and 3) dealing with gender binarism. While the group is important for helping its members navigate the medical system in terms of mental health professionals’ expectations regarding “proper” candidates for gender affirmation procedures, it has a hard time escaping a gender binarism that characterizes its social context. Conclusions Despite significant improvements in the situation of TGNB people concerning psychiatric gatekeeping a...

Negli ultimi anni, l’Europa “centro-orientale” 1 e, più nello specifico, la Polonia hanno attirato l’attenzione della comunità LGBT dell’Europa “occidentale”. Ciò anche e soprattutto a causa dell’atteggiamento xenofobo e ostile manifestato dai partiti populisti e nazionalisti di molti paesi ex-comunisti. Sempre più frequentemente si sente sostenere l’equazione “Europa centro-orientale = omofobia”. Percezione, questa, che gli eventi accaduti in Polonia, Lettonia, Lituania e Russia hanno contribuito ad alimentare. Più precisamente, di fronte al diniego dell’autorizzazione al Gay Pride e, in altri casi, di fronte ai violenti attacchi contro le pacifiche manifestazioni di gay e lesbiche è venuto quasi naturale tacciare di “omofobi” i Paesi dell’Europa “centro-orientale”.
Vorrei, pertanto, riflettere su questa fastidiosa percezione dell’Europa “centro-orientale” e porre l’accento sulle differenti sfaccettature di questa regione. Nel dibattito occidentale c’è la tendenza, infatti, a raggruppare indistintamente i Paesi dell’Est e del Centro Europa non solo sul piano storico, sostenendone la comune provenienza dal vecchio blocco sovietico, ma anche sul piano della politica sessuale, disconoscendo in questo modo i passi avanti fatti da alcuni di questi come la Repubblica Ceca, l’Ungheria e la Slovenia che, per esempio, hanno già introdotto forme di riconoscimento delle coppie omosessuali. Le domande, allora, a cui vorrei tentare di dar risposta in questo articolo sono: perché i Paesi dell’Europa “centro-orientale” sono indiscriminatamente tacciati di omofobia, e perché non vengono mai menzionate le differenze (positive) esistenti? Raffigurarsi tali Paesi in questo modo, quali conseguenze produce nei rapporti di potere tra Europa “centro-orientale” ed Europa “occidentale”? Può la comunità gay occidentale approfittarsi di questa situazione? D’altro canto, è pure importante tenere in considerazione le opportunità che certi discorsi di potere possono originare (anche se solo come effetto collaterale e provvisorio). Per esempio, sarebbe interessante chiedersi se e come le comunità gay e lesbiche dei Paesi dell’Europa “centro-orientale” possano trarre dei vantaggi da questo tipo di rappresentazione.