Belarus among most homophobic countries in Europe
Belarus ranks 42 out of 49 countries for comfortable living of sexual minorities. It is worse than Russia and Ukraine. UK ranks first.
Belarus has been recognized one of the most uncomfortable countries for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The data comes from an annual ranking published by the leading European human and LGBT rights organization ILGA-Europe. It says Belarus occupies 42nd place out of 49 countries.
The rating consists of 48 criteria, including legal protection against discrimination, efforts to combat hate crimes, recognition of the rights of transgender people, equality in family law, including same-sex marriage and parenting rights of gay and lesbian couples.
The United Kingdom ranks first among contries with the most advanced legislation for LGBT people in Europe. Its index is 86%. Scotland, as one of the parts of the kingdom, still has the highest index - 92%. Behind it are Belgium - 83%, Malta - 77%, Sweden - 72%, Croatia - 71%, and Spain - 69%.
Belarus has the index of 14%. According to the report, in our country there is no anti-discrimination legislation, there are hate crimes, the anti-LGBT hate speech is present in the media.
Among our neighbors, the most comfortable states for LGBT are Poland, which occupies 33th place, Lithuania (35), Latvia (37). Countries ranking worse than Belarus in LGBT rights situation are Ukraine (46) and Russia (48). The worst place for LGBT people to live in Europe is Azerbaijan. Its index is 5%.
Photo: Reuters, ilga-europe.org
