Magazine / Society / Homophobia / Debate | 16/08/2007

Homophobia in Eastern Europe

Homosexuality has become socially acceptable in most of Western Europe. In some Eastern European countries, however, gays and lesbians continue to be the targets of violence and discrimination. Can the EU combat these tendencies?

The sexual revolution of the 1960s paved the way for the gradual decriminalisation and increasing acceptance of homosexuality in Western Europe. Leading politicians, including the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, and the governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, have openly declared their homosexuality.

Symbolic wedding in Hungary, July 2007.
Foto: AP

A growing number of countries now permit legally registered partnerships and there are prominent examples of so-called "same-sex marriages" such as that of pop star Elton John which, as Patrick Sabatier wrote in the French newspaper Libération of 22 December 2005, no longer "surprise us or shock us" but are testament to the fact that "homosexuals' right to live their lives as others do has become commonplace in democratic societies."

A divided Europe

But in most new EU member states the situation of gays and lesbians is much more problematic owing to the fact that during Socialist times homosexuality was regarded either as a disease or a crime or totally hushed up. Over the past few years Gay Pride parades at which homosexuals display their new self-confidence have frequently led to rioting in Eastern European cities. While in Western European cities like Cologne, Madrid or Stockholm Christopher Street Day (CSD) has acquired the character of a folk festival, similar parades in Warsaw, Riga and Bucharest have been banished to the city outskirts or become the scene of violent attacks.

A commentary written by Priit Pullerits for the Estonian daily Postimees on 18 June 2007 illustrates the difficulties Eastern Europeans are experiencing with adopting a liberal attitude towards homosexuality. According to Pullerits, homosexuality should not be flaunted in public: "The purpose of the parade is to display eccentric behaviour... This is about the vociferous proclamation of sexual content in public. But one's sexual preferences are a personal issue that doesn't need to be rubbed in your fellow citizens' faces."

A Eurobarometer survey conducted last year revealed that although in total 44 percent of EU citizens support the introduction of same-sex partnerships, there is a great disparity between the East and the West: whereas in the Netherlands and Sweden, 82 and 70 percent respectively favoured the introduction of a pan-European law legalising gay marriage, in Poland it was only 17 percent and in Latvia a mere 12 percent.

Poland: Homosexuality as an "infectious disease"

In strongly Catholic Poland the mental and social climate has worsened since the Kaczynski government came to power a year ago. Writing in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 12 June 2006, Ulrich Schmidt noted that the leadership in Warsaw made no bones about its homophobic stance. And in the Belgian newspaper De Morgen of 9 August 2006 Tomek Kitlinski and Stephane Symons were also critical of Warsaw's policy on the issue: "The new Polish government is nationalist in the extreme. Its guidelines are: Poland for the Polish, women in the home, 'holebi' [gays, lesbians, bisexuals] in Hell."

With the Teletubbies dispute this policy was carried to the absurd in the eyes of many observers. Ewa Sowinska, the spokesperson for children's rights in Poland and a member of Polish Minister of Education Roman Giertych's ultra-conservative "League of Polish Families", expressed grave concern that the red handbag of purple Teletubby Tinky Winky could be an indication that the popular children's TV programme was propagating "inadmissible sexual content."

Writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on 31 May 2007, Thomas Urban expressed the opinion that, more than a mere travesty, this was "about the nationalist Catholics' perception of homosexuality as a kind of infectious disease. Indeed, the term 'homosexual propaganda' is part of the standard vocabulary employed not only by Giertych but also by the Kaczynski twins."

Latvia: the debate about an "imposed lifestyle"

In Latvia, as in Poland, one frequently hears the argument that homosexuality is a lifestyle that is being promoted and imposed on the country by the West. Writing in the Latvian newspaper Diena on 4 June 2007, Aivars Ozolins noted that politicians like Latvian Minister of Transport Ainars Slesers, president of the Christian fundamentalist LPP party, are openly homophobic: "Slesers believes it's his job to use government money to foment hate and intolerance against homosexuals and discredit them as archenemies of the state."

In 2005 the Latvian constitution was amended to ensure that in Latvia marriage remains an institution reserved for man and woman. Opponents of homosexual emancipation argue that homosexuality should be made a punishable offence, as it was in Soviet days. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung of 30 May 2007 Matthias Kolb cited a homophobic view, prevalent in the Latvian capital, according to which homosexuals, by refusing to bear children, are to blame for Latvia's negative demographic development.

Phoebe A. Greenwood analysed the situation as follows in the British daily The Guardian of 1 June 2007: "In Latvia and Poland homophobia is tangled up with nationalism and anti-EU feeling, and in Latvia it is frequently claimed that homosexuality didn't even exist in the country before it became part of the EU."

Intolerant Eastern Europe?

Western European perceptions of the new member states to the east tend to bundle them up into one monolithic block, but in fact there are considerable differences: the Czech parliament, for example, recently passed a law on the legal registration of same-sex partnerships. And in Hungary, notwithstanding the bloody confrontations at this year's Gay Pride parade, Hungarian Secretary of State Gábor Szetey became the first high-ranking politician to publicly announce his homosexuality.

On 12 July 2007, Delfi, Estonia's largest news portal, warned that Estonia should not make the mistake of allowing itself to be labelled "homophobic." "Preventing 'Pride' puts Estonia on the same footing as states in which gay parades are banned or end in violence. These are certainly not the kind of countries with which Estonia wants to be associated. Tolerance towards homosexuals is an integral part of democracy."

And what's more, the media is now registering an increase in homophobic tendencies in Western Europe. In a dossier published in the German weekly Die Zeit on 21 June 2007, Roland Kirbach noted that despite widespread social acceptance, hate against homosexuals was growing within German society; in the 6 October 2006 edition of British daily The Times, Simon Barnes described football and male sports in general as the last "bastion of homophobia", and Martin Reichert pointed in Germany's tageszeitung to anti-gay texts in rap music. When a law on the registration of same-sex partnerships was to be passed in Catholic Italy it encountered resistance not only from politicians but also in the form of a major counter-demonstration in defence of "family values".

EU signals

Many homosexuals in Eastern Europe are pinning their hopes on the EU, whose job it is to defend the rights of minorities in all member states. Discrimination is no longer occurring behind the scenes but can be observed all over Europe. As Jens Bisky wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of 10 June 2006, shortly before the Warsaw "Equality Parade": "If it wasn't for the hundreds of participants who travelled from Berlin, Hamburg, London and the US to Warsaw, no one would take any notice. People have always regarded the European public domain as merely a subject for panel discussions among aging philosophers and complained that in reality no such thing exists. Now it's becoming a reality just because a few gays want to demonstrate and celebrate on the Wisla."

In two resolutions on homophobia in Europe passed on the 18 January and 15 June 2006 the EU parliament in Strasbourg also points to the deplorable state of affairs in countries like Poland and Latvia. They make open reference to bans on demonstrations, hate speeches delivered by politicians or church representatives and legal measures against same-sex partnerships.

In the countries in question such resolutions are perceived as interfering with national competences. Homophobic statements often feature in demonstrations of nationalist defiance against the EU. The 2006 "Equality Parade" in Warsaw was marred by taunting calls such as "Stop Eurosodomy" and "No to the EU."

Nonetheless, even if it by no means represents a major breakthrough it was probably thanks largely to the EU that a parade was able to take place at all in Riga this year and that the Warsaw parade went off virtually without a hitch. By last year Ulrich Schmidt had already written in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of 12 June 2006: "The influence exerted by the rest of Europe is making itself felt, and it will grow stronger with time. The fact is that Poland's democracy is not in jeopardy, its media is independent and the country poses no threat to its neighbours. We must stay alert, and minorities in particular would be well advised to jealously guard their rights."

Berthold Forssman

Dr. Berthold Forssman studied Scandinavian, Slavic and Indo-Germanic languages and literature and now works as a freelance journalist, translator, language teacher and author in ...
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