LGBT rights in Europe



Gay rights are by far more widely accepted in Europe than in any other continent and in many respects Europe is arguably the most gay-friendly continent on the planet. As of today, four out of the six countries that have legalised same-sex marriage are in Europe. Also, 20 European countries have so far legalised civil unions or registered partnerships. Despite widespread persecution of lesbians and gay men stretching from the late Roman Empire until the late 20th century, including the Holocaust, lesbian and gay people enjoy much more greater acceptance in most European countries today, epecially Westen Europe. Although homosexuality has been decriminalised across Europe, issues facing same-sex couples today are discrimination in taxation, adoption and marriage.

History
Although same-sex relationships were quite common in ancient Greece and Rome, after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, severe laws against homosexual behavior appeared. An edict by the Emperor Theodosius I in 390 condemned all "passive" homosexual men to death by public burning. (A militant Christian, Theodosius also closed all pagan temples and abolished the Olympic Games.) This was followed by the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian I in 529, which prescribed public castration and execution for all who committed homosexual acts, both active and passive partners alike. Justinian's law code then served as the basis for most European countries' laws against homosexuals for the next 1400 years. Homosexual behavior, called sodomy, was considered a capital crime, and thousands of homosexual men were executed across Europe during waves of persecution in these centuries. Lesbians were less often singled out for punishment, but they also suffered persecution and execution from time to time.

During the French Revolution, the French National Assembly rewrote the criminal code in 1791, omitting all reference to homosexuality, making France the first European nation where lesbians and gays could live without fear of being jailed or executed as criminals on account of their sexual or romantic inclinations. On 6 August 1942, however, the Vichy government made homosexual relations with anyone under twenty-one illegal as part of its conservative (some would say fascist) family agenda. Most Vichy legislation was repealed after the war—but the anti-gay Vichy law remained on the books for four decades until it was finally repealed in August 1982 when the age of consent (15) was again made the same for heterosexual as well as homosexual partners.

Nevertheless, gay men and lesbians continued to live closeted lives, since moral and social disapproval by heterosexual society remained strong in France and across Europe for another two centuries, until the modern gay rights movement began in 1969.

Various countries under dictatorships in the 20th century were very anti-homosexual, such as in Nazi Germany, and in Spain under Francisco Franco's regime. Yet by way of contrast, in 1932 Poland became the first European nation in the 20th century to decriminalise homosexual activity, followed by Denmark in 1933, and Sweden in 1944. In 1989, Denmark was the first country in Europe, and the world, to introduce registered partnerships for same-sex couples. In 2001 a next step was made, when the Netherlands opened civil marriage for same-sex couples, which made it the first country in the world to do so. Since then, three other European states followed (Belgium in 2003, Spain in 2005 and Norway in 2008).

Recent developments
All nations applying for membership in the European Union must enact prohibitions against anti-homosexual discrimination in the workplace along with an equal age of consent before being accepted.

Just six countries do not allow homosexuals to openly serve in the armed forces, the only countries to ban gays from military service are Belarus, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Serbia and Turkey (exempt from conscription). All other European countries fairly recently allows homosexuals to openly serve in the armed forces. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will soon decriminalise male homosexual acts, when this is repealed with a new Criminal Code from 1 January 2009 - This will be the last nation in Europe to decriminalise homosexuality.

Public Opinion around Europe
Legal recognition and social acceptance of gay rights in Europe vary among different parts of Europe. Western Europe is considered to be the most liberal in regards to gay rights; Northern Europe is more moderate (with Scandinavia and the UK being more liberal), and tend to focus on less controversial issues such as taxation and adding anti-discrimination laws for homosexuals in certain areas. Southern Europe tends to be slightly more conservative (with the exception of Spain), but is more accepting of gay rights than Eastern Europe. East Europe is the least accepting of gay rights, the populace there being strongly influenced by the Orthodox and Catholic churches and some containing former communist countries.

In a 2002 Pew Global Attitudes Project serveyed by the Pew Research Center, showed majorities in every Western European nation said homosexuality should be accepted by society, while most Russians, Poles and Ukrainians disagreed. In 2006 a recent Eurobarometer poll surveying up to 30,000 people from each European Union countries, showed split opinion around the 27 member states on the issue of same sex marriage. The majority of support came from the Netherlands (82%), Sweden (71%), Denmark (69%), Belgium (62%), Luxembourg (58%), Spain (56%), Germany (52%) and Czech Republic (52%). All other countries within the EU had below 50% support; with Romania (11%), Latvia (12%), Cyprus (14%), Bulgaria (15%), Greece (15%), Poland (17%), Lithuania (17%) and Malta (18%) at the other end of the list. Same sex adoption had majority support from only two countries: Netherlands at 69% and Sweden at 51% and the least support from Poland and Malta on 7% respectively.

In addition other polls show Irish support for Civil unions at 51%, and gay adoption at 50%. France has support for same sex marriage at 62%, and Russians at 14%. Italy has support for the 'Civil Partnership Law' between gays at 45% with 47% opposed.

According to pollster Gallup Europe, it showed that women, the younger population and the highly educated have a more supportive view for marriage of homosexuals and gay adoption.