| LGBT rights in Belgium | |
|---|---|
Location of Belgium (dark green)
– in Europe (light green & dark grey) |
|
| Same-sex sexual activity legal? | Legal since 1795, age of consent equalized in 1985 |
| Gender identity/expression | – |
| Recognition of relationships |
Same-sex marriage since 2003 |
| Adoption | Same-sex couples have equal adoption rights as opposite-sex couples |
| Military service | Gays and lesbians allowed to serve openly |
| Discrimination protections | Sexual orientation protections (see below) |
Belgium is considered to be a very liberal country in regards to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights and became the second country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2003.
Contents |
Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1795 (when the country was a French possession).[1] The age of consent was equalized to 16, regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender in 1985.[2]
Belgium became the second country in the world to allow same-sex marriages in 2003 (after the Netherlands).[3] Same-sex couples have the same rights as opposite-sex couples.
Same-sex couples have had the same rights as opposite-sex couples in adopting children since 2006.[4]
Homosexuals are not banned from military service.
Laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation in several areas like employment, housing etc. went into force in 2003.[1] LGBT people have the same rights as all other citizens.
LGBT people are generally well socially accepted in Belgium. There is a strong gay community, with numerous gay clubs. A European Union member poll showed 62% of Belgians support same sex marriage extension to the whole Europe.[5]
Several politicians are openly gay, two examples being the minister for education in the Flemish Community Pascal Smet[6] and the Prime Minister of Belgium Elio di Rupo.
Belgian gay rights activists are grouped into several organisations. Several of these are part of Çavaria and Wel Jong Niet Hetero (Dutch for 'Young But Not Straight'), two associations of Dutch-speaking GLBT organisations in the Flemish and Brussels regions of Belgium. The French-speaking counterpart in the Walloon and Brussels regions is the Federation des Associations Gayes et Lesbiennes.
Belgian gay rights activism is made most visible by means of the BLGP "Belgium Lesbian and Gay Pride" demonstration marches. The marches are held annually in Belgium's capital Brussels since 1996, with similar events having been held intermittently in preceding years in both Brussels and other cities. While the marches have a festive character, they are also used to present the gay movement's political agenda in the form of a list of demands. The list was updated a number of times (in 1996, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2005) and has included demands for anti-discimination laws, inclusion of gay relationships in high-school sex education and the right to adoption by same-sex parents.
Many of the activist's demands, including the more prominent ones such as recognition of same-sex marriage and adoption rights, have been met over the years, leading some to wonder whether the marches had become obsolete. They point out that this was reflected in dwindling participant numbers for the 2007 march, although the organisers contest that the number of participants actually declined. Others attribute any such decline to simply bad weather and the event not being as attractive as the gay pride marches in neighbouring countries. The 2007 event nevertheless still had a list of 17 demands to march for. Still, it can be taken as a sign of the almost complete equalisation of gay and straight rights in Belgium that the primary demand was a call to Belgian politicians to play a prominent role in establishing similar rights at the level of the European Union. Several members of almost all political parties also walked in the 2007 march and earlier marches, with the notable exception of the extreme-right wing party Vlaams Belang.
In the 2007 march, some participants were seen with a banner "Thank you Verhofstadt!", in reference to the fact that many gay rights such as Same-sex marriage in Belgium were realised by the first two governments of Prime Mininister Guy Verhofstadt (Open VLD), which respectively consisted of liberals, socialists and greens, and of liberals and socialists.
Prior to 1998, the marches were held under the name "Roze Zaterdag – Samedi Rose" ("Pink Saturday"). The name was adopted for the first ever Belgian demonstration march for gay rights in 1979, taken from the same-named series of Dutch marches which were first held the year before. The 1979 march was organised on 5 May in Brussels, with subsequent marches the next two years in respectively Antwerp and Brussels again. After this first short series of annual events, it was only in 1990 that the decision was made to again organise the marches regularly, starting anew on 5 May in Antwerp and then bi-annually in Ghent and again in Antwerp. The latter choice of city was motivated by what is known as "Black Sunday", when the extreme right-wing party Vlaams Blok (now Vlaams Belang) scored a major electoral victory in Antwerp. Then in 1996, "Pink Saturday" was moved indefinitely to Brussels, and became an annual event. The next year, the list of demands was for the first time prominently displayed on 10 large banners carried by participants throughout the march. Finally, in 1998, the name of the march was changed to Belgian Lesbian and Gay Pride.
| Same-sex sexual activity legal | (since 1795) |
| Equal age of consent | (since 1985) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in employment | (since 2003) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services | (since 2003) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in all other areas (incl. indirect discrimination, hate speech) | (since 2003) |
| Same-sex marriage | (since 1 June 2003) |
| Recognition of same-sex couples | (since 1 January 2000) |
| Both joint and step parent adoption by same-sex couples | (since 2006) |
| Gays allowed to serve in the military | |
| Right to change legal gender | |
| Access to IVF for lesbians | |
| MSMs allowed to donate blood |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||