"Sexual and gender identities and expressions are still used in many parts of the world to justify stigmatisation, criminalisation and persecution. This year's 17th of May should build on the political momentum created by considerable advances in LGBTI rights across the world, including in the EU, in order to put an end to persistent prejudices that infringe LGBTI people's most fundamental rights", said Catiuscia Marini, President of the PES Group in the CoR. "I am particularly happy that my country, Italy, has made its own contribution to the LGBTI cause by passing at last a bill that allows civil unions for same-sex couples", she added.
President Marini reaffirmed the full commitment of the PES Group to the equality of rights for LGBTI people, underlining that "it is shameful that in this day and age, there are still over 70 countries in the world where it is a criminal offence to be gay, and in 7 of these countries, homosexuality is punishable by the death penalty". She went on to strongly criticise medical classifications allowing for the pathologisation of LGBTI adults and children, which is used to justify medical interventions that constitute an outright infringement of personal integrity.
On 17 May 1993, the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses and the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia (IDAHOT) was created 11 years later, in 2004, to raise awareness about violence and discrimination experienced by LGBTI people worldwide.
The PES Group in the Committee of the Regions, in cooperation with Rainbow Rose – the LGBT network of the Party of European Socialists (PES) – is organising a seminar on 29 November, which will raise awareness of the divergences in rights accorded to LGBTI people across the EU and discuss the role of local and regional authorities in combatting discrimination and promoting equality.
