LGBTQ+ rights: Luxembourg still in the top 5
The Rainbow Europe Index provides 49 countries in Europe, including the 27 EU Member States, in seven areas: equality and non-discrimination, family, hate crime and speech, legal gender recognition, intersex bodily integrity, civil society space and asylum.
In this ranking, the Grand Duchy obtained a score of 68.03%, 100% representing total equality and respect for human rights.
As for the top 5, Malta (92.02%) tops the list, followed by Denmark (73.78%) and Belgium (71.51%). Norway (68.30%) is ahead of the Grand Duchy. Belarus (12.06%), Russia (8.45%), Armenia (7.5%), Turkey (4%) and Azerbaijan (2.41%) close the ranking, the 0 % representing gross human rights violations and discrimination.
Luxembourg lost points, for example, for not introducing a ban on conversion therapy. Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (DP), who is gay, has previously said such a ban was unnecessary, as conversion therapy is not practiced in Luxembourg. In 2019, the prime minister reportedly stopped a dinner with Israel’s ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg after the dismissed education minister endorsed the practice in remarks.
The Grand Duchy also lacks effective laws and policies to combat anti-intersex hate speech, according to the Rainbow Europe Index. Luxembourg also does not currently recognize non-binary gender identities, another point of criticism, although it allows people to legally change gender on the basis of self-determination.
The association for the defense of LGBTQ + rights Rosa Lëtzebuerg had already criticized a formulation of the reform of the Constitution of the Grand Duchy, which stipulates that “women and men are equal in rights and duties”, believing that this would cement a model binary.
In a 2020 report, the OECD had already criticized the fact that Luxembourg does not automatically recognize as a legal parent the same-sex partner of a woman who gives birth by medically assisted insemination or in vitro fertilization. This situation also caused Luxembourg to lose points in the Rainbow Europe index.
As Luxembourg failed to close these loopholes in its legislation, it fell from third to fifth place in the Rainbow Europe index.
Recognition of parenthood
“Without any legal change in favor of LGBTIQ+ people in Luxembourg
already in 2020
, this trend has continued in 2021,” LGBTQ+ rights group Rosa Lëtzebuerg said in a statement. “Long-awaited bills, such as the bill to ban medical procedures on children without their informed consent, which the government still wanted to get through the House before the end of 2021, continue to be pending.”
Recognizing parenthood and banning gay conversion therapy would be “relatively easy to implement”, Rosa Lëtzebuerg, and would improve Luxembourg’s score.
“The Rainbow Index indicates how much a government cares about the rights of LGBTIQ+ people. This has a direct impact on the reality of life for homosexual people in Luxembourg,” said the association. “In addition, the positioning also has an influence on the external perception of Luxembourg. Rosa Lëtzebuerg therefore wishes to call on the government to be aware of Luxembourg’s role as a pioneer in human rights and to respond to outstanding demands.”
This article was written by
Delano
in English, translated and edited by Paperjam in French.