Homosexual acts are currently illegal in 76 countries around the world, and are punishable by death in five of those nations, as well as in certain areas of other countries.[1] All member nations of the European Council decriminalized homosexuality by 2003.[2] However, legality of homosexuality does not guarantee equality or other protections. Fewer than half of the countries in the world where homosexual acts are legal prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and even fewer provide this protection based on gender identity. [3] Only twenty-two nations allow same-sex couples to marry or enter into a parallel relationship such as a civil union.[4] Thirteen states and parts of three others allow same-sex couples to adopt children.[5]

Both the Council of Europe and the European Union have made recommendations to encourage member states to eliminate discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons.[6] The European Union has prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and requires all member states, as well as those vying for membership, to pass laws to that effect. This ban does not explicitly extend to gender identity; however, some member states do treat discrimination on the basis of gender identity as sex or sexual orientation discrimination.[7][8] Some European nations have no provisions for official recognition of a transgender person’s preferred gender identity.[9] Others allow legal recognition, but require certain medical and/or surgical procedures, often including sterilization, before someone can change their official documented gender.[10]

For some LGBT women and transgender men, their home is the most dangerous place. Because of the threat of violence from their families, many LGBT women and transgender men keep their sexuality or gender identity hidden from their parents and other family members. In Kyrgyzstan, an NGO survey showed that only 40% of lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender men had revealed their orientation or gender identity to their parents.[11] Of those who had confided in their families, more than half were subjected to attempts to change their orientation.[12] Almost 1 in 5 had suffered physical violence from their families as a result of their gender identity or sexuality.[13] Only one of the lesbian and bisexual women interviewed for a report in Azerbaijan had revealed their orientation to their families; the rest reported fear of violence if they revealed their feelings.[14]

Physical violence against LGBT women and transgender men is not limited to the family. LGBT women and transgender men face harassment and violent attacks from a variety of sources both as individuals and as a community. Official statistics on homophobic and transphobic violence are rare, as many nations do not collect data on hate crimes and those who do rarely report why victims were targeted.[15] However, non-governmental organization (NGO) studies report that violence against LGBT women and transgender men is a serious problem.[16] Research from Serbia reported that two out of three LGBT persons surveyed there had experienced violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.[17] A survey commissioned by the Turkish Ministry of Justice found that 37% of gays and lesbians and 89% of transgender persons had experienced physical violence because of their orientation or gender identity.[18] A Dutch survey of LGBT people in Kyrgyzstan reported that 65% of respondents have been physically or sexually assaulted.[19]

LGBT persons are frequent targets of sexual, physical, and emotional violence. Transgender men and transgender women may be attacked by men enraged by actual or perceived sexual advances.[20] Lesbian women have reported being harassed on the street and assaulted by people who have seen them hugging female partners or by men whose sexual advances they have rejected.[21] Others have been attacked by men who think they are effeminate men, or who approach a woman thinking she is a man, and become violent when they realize she is a woman.[22]

[1]Eddie Bruce-Jones & Lucas Paoli Itaborah, State-Sponsored Homophobia: A World Survey of Laws Criminalising Same-Sex Sexual Acts Between Consenting Adults at 9-10 (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) (2011) (PDF, 63 pages).

[2]Thomas Hammarberg, Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Europe at 24 (Council of Europe) (2011) (PDF, 134 pages).

[3]State-Sponsored Homophobia: A World Survey of Laws Criminalising Same-Sex Sexual Acts Between Consenting Adults at 12-13.

[4] Id. at 15-16.

[5] Id. at 16-17.

[6] See, for example, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union; ILGA Europe, European Union and LGBT Rights, (last visited 21 December 2011); ILGA Europe, Recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly, (last visited 21 December 2011).

[7] Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

[8] Cristina Castagnoli, Transgender Persons’ Rights in EU Member States at 13-14 (European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs) (2010) (PDF, 32 pages).

[9] See Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights and Gender Identity at 16 (2009) (PDF, 52 pages).

[10] Id. at 17-18.

[11] Human Rights Watch, These Everyday Humiliations: Violence Against Lesbians, Bisexual Women, and Transgender Men in Kyrgyzstan at 4 (2008), (PDF, 49 pages).

[12] Id. at 4.

[13] Id. at 4.

[14] Dennis van der Veur, Forced Out: LGBT People in Azerbaijan at 20-21 (2007) (PDF, 74 pages).

[15] Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Europe at 52-54.

[16] Id. at 52.

[17] ILGA-Europe, COC Netherlands, & Labris, The Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights in Serbia at 2 (2008) (PDF, 6 pages).

[18] Human Rights Watch, We Need a Law for Liberation: Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey at 3 (2008).

[19] These Everyday Humiliations: Violence Against Lesbians, Bisexual Women, and Transgender Men in Kyrgyzstan at 17.

[20] See, for example, Amnesty International, Not an Illness Nor a Crime: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trangender People in Turkey Demand Equality at 31-32 (2011) (PDF, 50 pages); We Need a Law for Liberation: Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey at 5.

[21] We Need a Law for Liberation: Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey at 6. Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan,Unacknowledged and Unprotected: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in Kazakhstan at 67-68 (2009) (PDF, 99 pages).

[22] These Everyday Humiliations: Violence Against Lesbians, Bisexual Women, and Transgender Men in Kyrgyzstan at 17-18.