Cyprus is often framed as a polarised place, but its LGBTI movement is rewriting that story. In this episode of The Frontline, activists from both sides of the green line that divides Cyprus, talk about how they’re challenging division, confronting rising hate, and reclaiming their space through protest, dialogue, and community care.

Recorded at ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference in October, Stephanos Stavros Evangelides from Accept LGBTI Cyprus in the Republic of Cyprus residing in the southern part, and Reşat Şaban from Queer Cyprus Association, across the Green Line in the northern part of Cyprus, speak about how cooperation between the two organisations has a become a driving force for wider social transformation in Cyprus and beyond.

You’ll hear how a movement shaped by occupation, nationalism, and deep social conservatism has grown into a force for unity, equality, and justice. This isn’t just a local struggle, it’s a blueprint for cooperation in the current political context, despite deep differences.

Stephanos and Reşat unpack how they collectively take on far-right rhetoric, anti-rights backlash, and navigate post-colonial traumas, all while building bridges across communities and borders. Through their wins, missteps, and lessons learned, they offer practical strategies that activists across Europe and Central Asia can apply right now.

If you’re navigating political division, institutional neglect, or rising hostility, this episode gives you an honest, inspiring look at how to stay resilient, and how queer liberation can fuel broader movements for peace and justice.

Subscribe to The Frontline for more episodes with LGBTI organisers sharing movement expertise and exploring what effective activism looks like.

This episode is part of a series of podcasts, blogs and resources from ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference in October 2025, looking at what it takes to work across differences to become a united movement for LGBTI human rights in the current political climate.

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We’re living in a time of rising authoritarianism, where politicians use LGBTI people as scapegoats to create a common enemy. This moment demands that our movement work across our differences and truly connect with people’s hearts and minds to build understanding, solidarity, and the courage to push back together.

Ten years ago in Ireland, the campaign for marriage equality showed what’s possible when a movement chooses connection over division. Groups that had long disagreed on strategy came together with a shared purpose: to speak to people’s hopes, their sense of fairness, and their desire to do right by one another. That spirit of unity and genuine outreach helped lead to an overwhelming vote to include same-sex marriage in the constitution

Ten years after Ireland’s landmark marriage equality referendum, this episode of The Frontline offers a powerful and insight rich talk for LGBTI activists, community organisers and anyone working for social change at this moment in time. Ailbhe Smyth, cofounder of the 2015 Marriage Equality campaign and a central figure in Ireland’s feminist and LGBTI movements, shares practical lessons on how to work across differences to build people power, strengthen grassroots organising and create campaigns that win.

Recorded at this year’s ILGA Europe Annual Conference in Vilnius, Ailbhe reflects on the strategies behind both the marriage equality victory and the 2018 abortion referendum. Her talk is filled with guidance for activists navigating today’s challenging sociopolitical context, including how to build broad coalitions, how to work across differences, how to mobilise local communities and how to communicate in ways that shift public opinion.

This episode is designed for LGBTI organisations, grassroots groups, emerging leaders and movement builders looking for clear and real world organising knowledge. Ailbhe explains what helped Irish activists turn local conversations into national momentum and how campaigners can sustain themselves and their communities through long struggles for equality and human rights.

If you are searching for practical strategies for LGBTI organising, examples of successful equality campaigns or inspiration from one of Ireland’s most respected activists, this episode offers grounded and actionable insights you can use immediately.

Subscribe to The Frontline for more episodes that support LGBTI organisers, share movement expertise and explore what effective activism looks like across Europe and Central Asia.

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Joining the conversation are Suranee Abeysuria, Director of Rainbow Mind, a mental health service by and for LGBTQIA+ people in the UK, and Uz Afzal, a senior practitioner and co-creator of Rainbow Mind’s radical self-care programme.

From navigating the emotional toll of activism to confronting the layered impacts of racism and homophobia within the asylum system and other racist structures, Suranee and Uz offer hard-won insights and practical tools for sustaining ourselves and our communities.

This episode isn’t just about stepping back to heal, it’s about reclaiming power, rewriting the rules of resilience, and a queer revolution grounded in healing.

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In this episode of The Frontline, we unpack the major headlines emerging from this year’s Rainbow Map, the annual ranking of European countries based on their legal and policy environments for LGBTI people.

Hungary has plunged seven spots to 37th place, following the European Union’s first-ever Pride ban. Organisers have been criminalised, and authorities have been granted sweeping powers, including the use of facial recognition to identify and fine peaceful participants. Close behind, the United Kingdom has dropped six places to 22nd, after a Supreme Court ruling stripped key legal protections from trans people. Meanwhile, Georgia, once a hopeful EU candidate, has fallen seven places to 44th, after passing a harsh legislative package widely seen as mirroring Russian-style crackdowns on LGBTI expression.

With expert insights from ILGA-Europe’s advocacy leads Katrin Hugendubel, Belinda Dear, and Cianán Russell, we explore the most significant collective decline in the Rainbow Map’s history. We ask: are Pride bans, court rulings like the UK’s, and other laws erasing LGBTI human rights becoming a wider European trend? And what does this all mean for everyone in Europe, not just LGBTI people?

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Over the past month, Italy has seen a surge of LGBTI-phobic violence. There have been no less than four hate-motivated attacks in the last four weeks, while hate messages have appeared on the doors of the Cassero LGBTQIA+ centre in Bologna.

The attacks have prompted large protests in both Rome and Milan, demanding the government to take urgent action. But all this is taking place at a time when openly LGBT-phobic rhetoric is used by Italy’s leaders, while legislative protection for LGBTI people in Italy is seriously lacking.

In this episode activists from Italy speak truth to the alarming rise in hate attacks and how the government is failing to acknowledge the anti-LGBTI motives of the attackers, while at the same time creating a fertile ground for such attacks.

Joining us to explore ways forward for the LGBTI movement, and what the EU should be doing, are Roberto Muzzetta from Arcigay, the largest LGBTI organisation in Italy, and Silvia Magino from Associazione Quore, which works with the community in Turin, and Rosario Coco, President of Gaynet, and Italy-wide association working on training and communication on LGBTI issues.

Tune in now to stay informed on the situation in Italy, the actions activists are taking in response, and their demands, as the country’s leadership continues to politicise anti-LGBTI sentiment within the European Union.

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In this episode of The Frontline we revisit an inspiring panel discussion from last October’s Annual Conference in Bucharest. The conversation, moderated by Simona Muršec from Ljubljana Pride, with Matt Kennedy from Trans Equality Together in Ireland, Nari Alibekova from TransDocha in Kazakhstan, and Simon Blake from Stonewall in the UK, explores how activists can build bridges across diverse identities and experiences to strengthen solidarity in the face of external challenges.delves into how we can embrace opportunities to build bridges across diverse identities and experiences.

Discover the strategies, insights, and courage needed to nurture the unity that remains the cornerstone of the LGBTI movement.

Tune in and be part of the conversation shaping the future of queer solidarity.

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Within the LGBTI movement, how has cancel culture influenced our work and relationships—and how can we move beyond it while staying true to our values? Sabah Choudrey’s inspiring talk at the ILGA-Europe Annual Conference in Bucharest last October unpacks this pressing question. Drawing from adrienne maree brown’s transformative book, ‘We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformational Justice’, Sabah examines the rise of cancel culture, explores compassionate alternatives to "calling out," and discusses how to address harm with accountability and care.

This episode invites you to step back from the fast pace of activism and the reactivity of social media to reflect on how we can create healthier, more supportive activist spaces.

If you’re ready to rethink justice, accountability, and the future of our movements, this episode of The Frontline is not to be missed.

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Meanwhile potential breaches in campaign finance laws and unfair practices exploiting the use of  TikTok’s algorithms were credited to have boosted Georgescu, giving him enormous exposure despite the fact that he was relatively unknown. The European Commission have said they will be investigating whether there was unlawful TikTok interference.

So, as Romania gets ready for the nail-biting second round of its presidential election, what does all this mean for LGBTI people in the country? How are activists reading the conflicting results of the presidential and parliamentary elections, amid viral anti-LGBTI TikTok videos and the bombshell rise of Calin Georgescu who has previously said he wants to ‘ban homosexuality’? And what does this mean in terms of elections everywhere?

To discuss the questions and implications, we’re joined on The Frontline by Vlad Viski, President of Romania’s community-based LGBT organisation MozaiQ and Stefi Ionescu, board member of ACCEPT Association, which advocates for the human rights of LGBTI people in Romania.

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With rising levels of backlash and political scapegoating, how do LGBTI organisations relate to the greater struggle for democracy, freedom and equality? How do we avoid playing into political division in our quest for success? And in a world where there are no easy wins, what does that success look like?

In this episode of The Frontline we’re looking at discussion that took place during the ILGA-Europe annual conference in Bucharest in October, where over 400 activists joined us to look at ways forward for LGBTI activism at this critical time in the world.

For our panel on finding the courage to seek new strategies in current political contexts, ILGA-Europe’s Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel is joined by Irena Moozova, Deputy Director General responsible for the International Dimension of Justice Policies, Rule of Law, and Equality in the European Commission, Béatrice Fresko-Rolfo, General Rapporteur for LGBTI rights at PACE in the Council of Europe, Denitsa Lyubenova, lawyer from the LGBTI organisation Deystvie in Bulgaria, and Magda Rakita from Fundacja Interakcja in Poland.

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Joining us are three expert guests who bring diverse perspectives and deep experience in this field: Nino Kharchilava from WISG, Georgia, who will share her insights on wholistic security and care management; Suranee Abesurya, the Executive Director of Rainbow Mind, UK, bringing the perspective of clinical professionals; and Elvira Meliksetyan, a wellbeing trainer from FrontLine Defenders, who brings hands-on professional knowledge in fostering organisational health.

In this part we discuss the solutions and strategies that can be implemented to foster a supportive and healthy environment for everyone in our organisations.

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Joining us are three expert guests who bring diverse perspectives and deep experience in this field: Nino Kharchilava from WISG, Georgia, who will share her insights on wholistic security and care management; Suranee Abesurya, the Executive Director of Rainbow Mind, UK, bringing the perspective of clinical professionals; and Elvira Meliksetyan, a wellbeing trainer from FrontLine Defenders, who brings hands-on professional knowledge in fostering organisational health.

In this episode, we start at the very beginning, by looking at what organisational wellbeing actually means, and exploring how we identify group wellbeing needs.

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Over the past decade, ILGA-Europe’s staff has gone on a learning journey on how to be an organisation that truly adopts an intersectional approach in all our work. In this episode of The Frontline, we’re talking about that journey in real terms. What actually is intersectionality? How do we learn about being truly intersectional and practically put it to use? How do we open ourselves to take on board and learn from critique? And how do we learn from the mistakes we often make?

These are some of the questions in this special episode, presented by Valeria Santostefano, a former team member with ILGA-Europe who was active in the intersectionality portfolio, and who has recently joined the team to support internal learning. Valeria is joined by the former Executive Director, Evelyne Paradis, who has been part of the learning for 15 years, and the new Executive Director, Chaber who is taking the work, and the continual learning, forward.

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In this episode of The Frontline we take a look at that this might all mean for LGBTI human rights in the EU over the coming years. Joining our Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel to discuss the election results, the campaigns that led to them, and what the way forward might be are are co-chairs of the LGBTI Intergroup at the European parliament, freshly re-elected MEP’s Marc Angel from the Socialists & Democrats in Luxembourg and Kim van Sparrentak from the Greens/EFA in The Netherlands, alongside activists Luca Dudits from Hatter Society in Hungary and Roberto Muzetta from Arcigay in Italy.

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In this episode of The Frontline, as Evelyne Paradis hands over the reins of leadership to our new Executive Director, Chaber, we sit down with them both to talk about how ILGA-Europe has evolved as an organisation alongside the LGBTI movement over the past decades, and what’s just around the corner, both for the organisation and for the queer activist movement.   

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What have been the rising priorities in queer activism, and how has ILGA-Europe been both supporting and helping lead the charge? What have been the pitfalls along the way and what are the challenges ahead? And as LGBTI communities and activists face growing opposition from powerful right wing forces across the region, how can the movement further harness is own power to push forward?  

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With a decade and half of experience leading Europe’s largest LGBTI umbrella organisation, which is a driving force for political, legal and social change in Europe and Central Asia, Evelyne has had a helicopter view of the growing place of LGBTI rights on political agendas and how all of this has filtered down in the everyday lives of LGBTI people across the regions.

In this episode, Evelyne talks about how politics have evolved over her time leading ILGA-Europe, which included the dawn and global spreading of social media, and how Europe’s political institutions have progressed to include LGBTI people across a broad range of portfolios and initiatives. Is the current EU political system working well to shore up and promote LGBTI equality, or are rainbow rights a victim to an advancing populism across the political spectrum? And what does it take to be a great politician at this time in the world? All these questions and more are answered in this, the first of the Evelyne Paradis exit interviews for The Frontline.  

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In this episode of The Frontline, we ask the question, if a country stays at the bottom of the Rainbow Map ranking, does it mean there's no queer activism happening there? In countries where advocacy is not possible, and where daily life for LGBTI people is often extremely challenging, what's happening in the work towards LGBTI rights and equality? And is this mostly invisible activism bringing about change for LGBTI people in the countries where it seems life is getting worse rather than better? 

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This year there was much movement on the map, with Malta holding the top spot and several countries entering the top ten. All of this has been reported across the world, but what truths lie behind the Rainbow Map rankings? Malta has been number one for eight years now, but is it a utopia for LGBTI people, or are there issues in the country that might be pinkwashed by its Rainbow ranking? Are small movements up the chart really representative of what’s happening on the ground for LGBTI people? And what’s happening in the countries that used to be at the top but are now lagging very much behind? 

In this episode of The Frontline, exploring the complexities behind the rankings in the annual Rainbow Map, we are joined by guests Robert Attard from the Malta Gay Rights Movement, Simona Mursec from Ljubljana Pride Association in Slovenia and Sophie Schers from Transgender Network in The Netherlands. We’re also joined by Mehmet Akin from the ILGA Europe team, who oversees the collection of data and rankings on the Rainbow Map and Index, and our Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel, to talk about what we see happening now and in the future.  

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This episode focuses on the ways in which actors in the women’s movement are actively inclusive of trans women, questions the exclusionary narrative that dominates much of the media, and how this dominant narrative is both being driven by and playing into the hands of anti-democratic forces.   

We ask what it means for feminism to be inclusive in practical terms and how does inclusiveness impact the work? We explore how inclusionary women’s rights organisations and
trans activists are responding to the efforts of exclusionary actors to narrow the frame for feminism, and the lessons learned so far. 

With us to investigate the exclusionary narrative and look at it from the more prevalent inclusionary perspective, are Caroline Hickson, Regional Director of International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network; Tanya von Knorring, Executive Director of  Transfeminiinit, Finland and Federal Vice Chair of National LGBTI Finland; and Marion Böker from the German NGO, Deutsche Frauenring, who is also on the board of the International Alliance of Women and the European Women’s Lobby.
 

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But what happens when divisions over LGBTI issues become the leading stories surrounding a major sporting event like the World Cup? Do these stories serve the LGBTI communities in countries where people are at risk? Do they serve the greater goals of the LGBTI movement for equality? Or is the focus on LGBTI people and LGBTI issues not creating a Rainbow Divide, in which the human rights of one group are separated from the human rights of all?  

This episode of The Frontline will explore the complexities around singling out of LGBTI rights at the Qatar World Cup, when so many other human rights abuses are taking place in the country, if it further fuelled an ‘us and them’ human rights narrative, and what responsibility lies with the media in the reporting of this and other LGBTI centred stories. 

Our guests are Ryan Heath, Editorial Director with Politico; Gurchaten Sandhu, Director of Programmes at ILGA World, and the Executive Director of ILGA-Europe, Evelyne Paradis.  

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We're joined by former member of European Parliament, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marije_CornelissenMarije Cornelissen , who has worked extensively on the accession process; Lenny Emson from Kyiv Pride in Ukraine; Anastasia Danilova from GENDERDOC-M in Moldova; and Danijel Kalezić, who worked for years as the Executive Director of Queer Montenegro , but has now become the Co-director of ERA, the LGBTI Equal  Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Turkey. We’re also joined ILGA-Europe's Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel to talk about our deep and long-term experience of working on accession countries, which has been happening for 25 years now.  

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With the current state of LGBTI rights in Central Europe, highlighted most recently by the Serbian government’s anti-democratic instrumentalising of LGBTI people in an effort to try to stop EuroPride in Belgrade, how does this kind of backsliding play into the accession process? And what about countries like Ukraine, where LGBTI rights have barely been on the governmental agenda? What are the opportunities to be gained by candidacy for joining the EU? 

To discuss these questions and more, we're joined by former member of European Parliament, Marije Cornelissen, who has worked e xtensively on the accession process; Lenny Emson from Kyiv Pride in Ukraine; Anastasia Danilova from GENDERDOC-M in Moldova; and Danijel Kalezić, who worked for years as the Executive Director of Queer Montenegro , but has now become the Co-director of ERA, the LGBTI Equal  Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Turkey. We’re also joined ILGA-Europe's Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel to talk about our deep and long-term experience of working on accession countries, which has been happening for 25 years now.  

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Here we look at the rising opportunities and challenges for LGBTI organisations engaging with the private sector. At ILGA-Europe we’ve experienced these first-hand, as businesses have reached out to support our work with and on behalf of our member organisations, and with us to discuss these developments from the ILGA-Europe perspective is our Executive Director, Evelyne Paradis.

We're also joined by Jens Schadendorf, independent LGBTI researcher at the chair of business ethics at the Technical University of Munich, and author of the recent book, Gayme Changer: How the LGBT+ Community and their Allies are Changing the Global Economy , which provides and overview of the business arena engaging with LGBTI rights and inclusion, and the impact of that, both on communities and countries.

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Find out more about to work of Mermaids here. 

See the #WhatsYourName campaign here.  

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In this episode we’re talking about how we at ILGA-Europe are responding to the war in Ukraine, and in particular the effects on LGBTI people, both in Ukraine and Russia, in neighbouring countries, and all host countries across Europe and Central Asia. With us to talk about the current situation, from ILGA-Europe’s perspective, combined with what we know from our member organisations in Ukraine, Russia and across the region, is our Executive Director, Evelyne Paradis.

Find out more about our Information, Action, Direction initiative working to support LGBTI people caught up in the war in Ukraine here .
 

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This episode of The Frontline features an enlightening conversation about navigating change as an activist, between ILGA-Europe’s Executive Director Evelyne Paradis and Natia Gvianishvili, who has been actively engaged with local, regional and international LGBTI and feminist movements for over a decade now. Natia began her activist life in Georgia, and she currently resides in Sweden, where she works with the Swedish
Federation for LGBTQ Rights (RSFL).

Evelyne and Natia chat about how change affects activists and activism, and deliberately exploring our relationship with change so that we can find our own compass when navigating a constantly transforming world.  

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Joining us to chat about support and empowerment are Stefan Sparavalo from Da se Zna in Serbia and Marty Huber, from Queer Base in Austria.  

• For more about how we support the LGBTI movement in Europe and Central Asia, click here  
• We create resources and learning opportunities we create for activists, see our resource about communications  
• For examples of our past funding opportunities, click here and here  
• For information about our annual events for activists, this year the Gathering Online, click here 
• Join and use our free Resource Sharing Centre for LGBTI activists, The Hub 
• See one of our surveys to provide direction to our work and the movement here  

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Joining us are David Kakhaberi, the executive director of Equality Movement in Georgia, and Eka Tseriteli, executive director of Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group, also in Georgia, to talk about the distinctive approaches they’ve used to tackle wellbeing issues for their teams.  

• For more about how we support the LGBTI movement in Europe and Central Asia, click here  
• We create resources and learning opportunities we create for activists, see our resource about communications  
• For examples of our past funding opportunities, click here and here  
• For information about our annual events for activists, this year the Gathering Online, click here 
• Join and use our free Resource Sharing Centre for LGBTI activists, The Hub 
• See one of our surveys to provide direction to our work and the movement here  

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Joining us to talk about the reality of queer activism in the current context, the good sides and bad, are ILGA-Europe’s Programmes Director, Bjorn van Roozendaal; Ola Kaczorek, founding member of Love Does Not Exclude, the first organisation to demand marriage equality in Poland; Irena Cvetkovic, the Executive Director of Coalition Margins in North Macedonia, which works to promote and protect the human rights of marginalised communities, and Ruslana Hnatchenko from the Ukrainian lesbian feminist NGO, Women Association Sphere.  

• For more about how we support the LGBTI movement in Europe and Central Asia, click here   
• We create resources and learning opportunities we create for activists, see our resource about communications   
• For examples of our past funding opportunities, click here and here  
• For information about our annual events for activists, this year the Gathering Online, click here 
• Join and use our free Resource Sharing Centre for LGBTI activists, The Hub 
• See one of our surveys to provide direction to our work and the movement here  

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Every year, Rainbow Europe ranks all 49 European countries based on the laws and policies in each to ensure equal rights and protection for LGBTI people. Countries are ranked from zero percent to one hundred, with zero representing gross violations of human rights and discrimination and one-hundred representing full respect for human rights and equality.

The past 12 months have marked an unprecedented year in the map’s 12-year history, with almost no positive legislative change for LGBTI people in Europe. With us to discuss this disturbing stand-still, on both European and national levels, and the ways forward both at  European and national levels, are ILGA-Europe’s Executive Director, Evelyne Paradis, our colleague, Bjorn Van Roozendaal, Alexa Moore from Transgender NI in Northern Ireland, Alexa Moore, and Kaspars Zalitis from Mozaika in Latvia.

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In this episode of The Frontline, we looking at the rising issue of LGBTIQ youth homelessness in Europe. A new report from ILGA-Europe, in association with Cyndi Lauper’s LGBTIQ Youth Homelessness organisation True Colors United, and the Silberman Centre for Sexuality and Gender (SCSG) at Hunter College in New York, explores the experiences of LGBTIQ focused organisations in Europe working in with young people who have experienced homelessness. Over 60% of LGBTIQ organisations surveyed for the report said they had worked on the issue.

A comparative report from the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), also  finds that over 60% of homeless services organisations have dealt with young LGBTIQ people, but often without any training or support. 

Our guests for this conversation about the rising issue of young LGBTI people being made homeless in Europe are author of the ILGA-Europe report, Dr Jama Shelton from True Colors United, Policy officer with FEANTSA, Robbie Stakelum, ILGA-Europe’s programmes director, Bjorn Van Roozendaal, and Silvia Magino from Association Quore in Turin, Italy, which has set up a housing project for LGBTIQ people in difficulty.

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Kalina and Jane brought a case against the Bulgarian authorities to the EU Court of Justice, which was heard in March 2021. They join us to talk about their current situation, the case, and what it means to their family. We’re also joined by Arpi Avetisyan, Head of Litigation at ILGA-Europe, to talk about the wider implications of the case.

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In the first part of our mini-series on rainbow family rights, during which we we’re looking at the issues affecting LGBTI partners, parents and their children across Europe, we meet Adrian Coman from Romania. Three years ago, Adrian and his partner Clai were successful bringing their case to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which judged that same-sex spouses are fully recognised as spouses under the EU freedom of movement directive. As a result, Adrian and Clai, who is American, should have been granted a residence permit in Romania. To this day, the judgement has not been enacted by the Romanian state, and in December 2020, the couple took their case to the European Court of Human Rights to finally get their rights recognised. We’re also joined by Arpi Avetisyan, head of litigation at ILGA-Europe, to talk about the wider implications of the latest developments in the Coman case.

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In this episode of The Frontline, we get an overview of the stark situation from ILGA-Europe’s Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel. Executive Director of Transgender Europe (TGEU) talks to us about the significant growth of opposition towards trans rights across Europe; and Executive Director of ILGA-Portugal, and Marta Ramos tells us about the rise of the anti-gender movement in her country, and the ways in which LGBTI organisations have had to skew their work during the COVID-19 pandemic towards provision of basic necessities like food and shelter as many governments left LGBTI people out of their relief packages.

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Our Executive and Advocacy Directors, Evelyne Paradis and Katrin Hugendubel look back on what surprisingly turned out to be a successful year for EU engagement. Activists from ILGA-Europe member organisations in Slovenia and Hungary talk about the rise of ultra-right populism in both EU countries, Hungary’s slew of anti-LGBTI laws as the virus raged on, and their respective responses to EU institutional engagement and how it can go forward.

Members of the EU Parliament’s LGBT Intergroup, MEP’s Terry Reintke (Greens/EFA, Germany) and Maria Walsh (EPP, Ireland) give an inside view on the year gone by, and reflect on a challenging first year for the new Intergroup. It all adds up to a comprehensive look at the EU and its engagement in equality, in a Europe where LGBTI rights have become a sharp dividing line.

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“Attitudes towards LGBTI people are changing and changing fast,” says activist, Lilly Dragoeva from the Sofia-based Billitis Foundation, in this episode of The Frontline, which delves into the current situation in Bulgaria, a country we don’t often hear about as Poland and Hungary’s governmental persecution of LGBTI people grabs the headlines. There may not be LGBT-free zones in Bulgaria, but it’s a country with almost no protections for LGBTI people, a growing, so-called ‘anti-gender’ movement, a successful spreading of demonising fake news stories, and an alarming advance in societal rejection of LGBTI people.

Along with Lilly, we speak with activist Simeon Vasilev from GLAS Foundation about a growth in official anti-LGBTI hate speech and the role the EU can play, and with Dimithar Dimitrov from the Bulgarian city of Plovidiv, where in September there were organised attacks on young people who are perceived as LGBTI.

Some hope for Bulgarian LGBTI people comes in the form of strategic litigation for the recognition of a rainbow family, and we speak to attorney Denitsa Lyubenova, from the LGBTI youth organisation, Deystvie, about the current state of play with the case.

Rounding the episode up, ILGA-Europe’s Programmes Director, Bjorn Van Roozendaal talks to us about the wider picture in Europe, the reasons behind the growth we’re seeing in anti-LGBTI politics and movements, and the way the LGBTI movement can strategise to counteract this.

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In this episode of The Frontline we delve deep into the situation for LGBTI people in Poland and the work of activists amid the rise of official anti-LGBTI campaigning and the recent crackdown. We talk to Polish activist Slava Melnyk from KPH (Campaign Against Homophobia) about how the situation has come to a head in the aftermath of the re-election of far-right President, Andrzej Duda. David Socha, a young gay man living in the city of Pulawy, which has been designated one of Poland’s LGBT-free Zones, tells us about how this has affected his day-to-day life, and the ILGA-Europe advocacy team discuss the role of the EU institutions and external actors, and ways forward for the LGBTI movement in Poland. To access our timeline charting the rise of LGBT hate in Poland, visit this link: https://www.ilga-europe.org/sites/default/files/Poland-Anti-LGBT-Timeline.pdf

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