Sexual orientation discrimination in new member states


ILGA-Europe launches today Meeting the challenges of accession, a report highlighting sexual orientation discrimination that lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people face in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. This report illustrates with percentages and quotes from LGB people the extent of discrimination in the family, in health services, in education, in the workplace, in housing, in the army and in the church. Those range from direct and indirect discrimination to harassment and physical violence.

To prevent discrimination and violence, many people tend to conceal their sexual orientation. Concealment is particularly frequent in the public sphere i.e. in the workplace, in health care and housing, in the church or in the streets. Furthermore, to bring to an end the ongoing violence and discrimination experienced, a majority of respondents consider emigration to countries perceived to be more tolerant. 

The ultimate aim of the report is to place the fight against discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation at the core of the “acquis communautaires” and to reinforce the instruments dealing with discrimination. To achieve this, the report puts forward some recommendations to the new member states and to the EU institutions. At national level, these recommendations concern primarily a general ban of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation coupled with the establishment of equality bodies to monitor and prevent discrimination. At EU level, the Commission needs to ensure that the framework directive is implemented properly and that legislation and policies go beyond the field of employment to extend to access to goods, facilities and services as it is the case for race anti-discrimination.


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Maybe later: YTG won't license gay marriage


WHITEHORSE - The Yukon government say a same-sex marriage should go ahead as planned next month – without a marriage licence.

Rob Edge and Stephen Dunbar want to wed in the YukonCourt documents filed in the YTG's defense promise a license could be issued retroactively if and when the courts legalize same-sex marriage.

But the government says Stephen Dunbar and Rob Edge will not get a marriage licence until the Supreme court orders it, or until Parliament redefines marriage to include same-sex couples.

It's not the response Dunbar had hoped for.

"What he's saying in his affidavit is he would make it retroactive ... should the Supreme Court rule in favour [of same-sex marriage]," he says. "That's unacceptable. Our marriage is July 17th. I don't think any of the Supreme Court or their lawyers had to wait for their marriage licences. There's no reason why we should have to wait."


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Has Gay Man's Killer Struck Again? 
by Steph Smith
365Gay.com Newscenter
Chicago Bureau


(Chicago Illinois) The discovery of a man's body in a North Side apartment just blocks from where two gay men were found murdered over the past year has Chicago's gay community concerned a serial killer is preying on the area.

Forest Cowley, 44, was found in his one-bedroom apartment after neighbors complained of a bad odor emanating from the unit. A police source said Cowley appeared to have been bludgeoned to death.

Cowley was last seen June 12.  He is descried as a quiet but friendly man by neighbors in the building in the heart of Chicago's North Side's gay and lesbian community.

Police said there is nothing at this time to link Cowley's death to the March murder of Kevin Clewer just two blocks away. Last August, the body of theater director Brad Nelson Winters was found stabbed in his apartment 12 blocks south. Neither of those killings has been solved.