TRANS RIGHTS EUROPE MAP TO MARK THE INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA – IDAHOT 2013.

May 14th 2013

On May 17, more than 100 countries worldwide will celebrate the day when homosexuality was removed from the mental illness list of the World Health Organisation in 1990. However, transgender identities are still listed as mental disorders. On top of it, trans people in Europe have numerous other reasons not to rejoice.

The bleak legal situation will be presented for the first time by TGEU in a Trans Rights Europe Map & Index. The map shows at a glance which of the 49 countries in Europe require sterilization in legal gender recognition and which countries do not provide for any procedures. An index presents a detailed overview (21 categories) over the legal human rights situation for trans people in each European country.  The data is based on ILGA-Europe’s rainbow map.

As in recent years, TGEU will provide a detailed up-date of the Trans Murder Monitoring project at the occasion of IDAHOT. In the last five years more than 1200 reported killings of trans people have been collected worldwide. However, these numbers are only the tip of the iceberg; it must be expected that the reality is much worse.

The Fundamental Rights Agency will publish on May 17 the results of its survey on experiences of violence and discrimination of LGBT persons in the EU and Croatia. The survey is the largest of its kind with 93.000 respondents.

“All our collected data is clearly suggesting one conclusion: European countries do not take sufficient action to protect trans people efficiently against violence and discrimi­nation. The time to act is now!” explains Dr Julia Ehrt, TGEU Executive Director.

“The Trans Rights Europe Map & Index and our Trans Murder Monitoring project make very visible that the problems trans people experience are structural and hence need a systematic approach.” emphasizes Alecs Recher, member of the TGEU Executive Board. He adds: “Trans people cannot wait any longer for the protection of their human rights. The EU has a crucial role in Europe to champion trans rights.

ACCESS THE DOCUMENTS HERE on MAY 17