20/03/2021
The European Union has started to follow what many LGBTQ campaigners have been arguing for some time, by taking efforts to counter anti-gay and anti-trans extremism masquerading as traditional values in parts of Eastern Europe. The cable channel Euronews reports that after one hundred municipalities in Poland had declared themselves “LGBT Free Zones” with the connivance of the far right wing government, the EU Parliament has voted by a margin of four to one to declare the whole Union area an LGBTQ welcoming zone. Terry Reintke, a German Green MEP who is a member of the LGBT community, said: "We know that our lives are still in danger, our rights restricted, our freedom brutally suffocated in far far too many places in the EU. But it is a step and we are many, we are everywhere, and we are strong." The EU has started reviewing the money that is being granted to areas which do not guarantee freedom of expression and freedom of assembly for minority groups, and six municipalities in Poland have had their grants rejected because of their anti-gay bigotry in the last twelve months.
