Theorising Change; the history and development of Queer Europe

his article considers how the new ‘Europes’ of the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) have tackled the problems of a historical Judeo-Christian based legal framework in which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) were persecuted within nation states. It addresses the late medieval and early modern developments which took the values of what was initially Church religious law and transferred these into state and secular laws; laws which were to prosecute and for many years, judicially kill LGBT people. It also looks at the rare cases where nation states did not embody these former religious rules, and why, and to what extent that protected LGBT people. The article also reviews the differences, historically, in how the two legal systems in Europe, the Civil Codified ‘Roman’ Law of Continental Europe and the Common Law of Great Britain, addressed the determination of a person’s sex for the purposes of legal decision making and property inheritance. This was important for determining whether or not a person was committing a criminal offence by their sexual activity. The article then discusses the response of European nations to the Nazi genocide of World War II, and the development of the two parallel European jurisdictions, one economic, one based in Human Rights. These jurisdictions have created a new moral sensibility, a standard by which the law of Europe is in itself to be judged. A new ‘rule of law’ which has contributed to a social as well as a legal framework in which LGBT people’s rights have been increasingly recognized. The article contrasts this with the history of national persecutions of LGBT people, and discusses how the new versions of Europe have led to a process of creating normative and ethical law in which LGBT rights are natural and given.

Oxford Handbook, 2020

Europe matters to contemporary LGBTQ politics. This chapter maps out various political articulations connecting Europe and LGBT rights today, arguing that Europe has played a central role in much of the LGBTQ movement's history but that this relationship is complex and multifaceted depending on the vast space of what "Europe" means to many different actors. In other words, Europe has been imagined and unimagined as LGBTQfriendly by various actors and for various purposes. In making this argument the chapter presents "Europe" from four different angles, exploring the association between the continent and "LGBT rights" in each: Europe as an institutional entity, Europe as an activist project, Europe as exclusionary, and Europe as a threat. It takes a position on how the relationship is defined in each section, highlighting both the opportunity and risk that entails for LGBT rights and people on the continent. In doing so, the chapter highlights the ways European states and institutions have gradually endorsed some activist goals, embedding LGBT rights into the version of Europe understood as an institutional entity. Problematically, however, it shows that this project also generates different forms of exclusion. Moreover, while many actors articulate an idea of Europe as associated with

The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics, 2019

Europe matters to contemporary LGBTQ politics. In this chapter, we map out various political articulations connecting Europe and LGBT rights today, arguing that Europe has played a central role in much of the LGBTQ movement's history, but that this relationship is complex and multifaceted depending on the vast space of what "Europe" means to many different actors. In other words, Europe has been imagined and unimagined as LGBTQ-friendly by various actors and for various purposes. In making this argument we present "Europe" from four different angles, exploring the association between the continent and "LGBT rights" in each: Europe as an institutional entity, Europe as an activist project, Europe as exclusionary and Europe as a threat. We take a position on how the relationship is defined in each section, highlighting both the opportunity and risk that entails for LGBT rights and people on the continent. In doing so, we highlight the ways European states and institutions have gradually endorsed some activist goals, embedding LGBT rights into the version of Europe understood as an institutional entity. Problematically, however, we show that this project also generates different forms of exclusion. Moreover, while many actors articulate an idea of Europe as associated with LGBT rights, these actors also compete to define the nature and the content of this association. Europe as an idea is thus multifaceted in its relation to LGBTQ politics, depending on the angle from which we view it.

2014

Europe has long been regarded as a unique place for the promotion and furthering of LGBT rights. This important and compelling study investigates the alleged uniqueness and its ties to a relatively long history of LGBT and queer movements in the region. Contributors argue that LGBT movements were inspired by specific ideas about European democratic values and a responsibility towards human rights, and that they sought to realize these on the ground through activism, often crossing borders to foster a wider movement. In making this argument, they discuss the 'idea of Europe' as it relates to LGBT rights, the history of European LGBT movements, the role of European institutions in adopting LGBT policies, and the construction of European 'others' in this process.

Scandinavian studies in law, 2010

5 The European Court of Human Rights 346 5.1 Criminalization of Same-sex Relations and Unequal Ages of Consent 347 5.2 Homosexuals in the Armed Forces 349 5.3 The Enjoyment of Social Protection 351 5.4 Rights of Transsexuals 351 5.5 Marriage 354 5.6 Custody and Adoption of Children 355

Social & Legal Studies, 2014

The Modern Law Review, 1995

Kees Wmldijk and Andrew Clapham (eds) , Homosexuality: A European Community Issue-Essays on Lesbian and Gay Rights in European Law and Policy, Dordrecht/Boston/London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1993, xvi + 426 pp, pb f 15.W. The law's treatment of sexuality, and in particular its unfavourable treatment of people whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual, has formed the subject-matter of a growing number of academic texts and articles over the last 30 or so years.' Despite the overwhelming social hostility which is still directed at people who are, or are perceived as being, lesbian, bisexual or gay, the increasing visibility of such people in social life, and the consequent political significance of the law's regulation of their sexual orientations, has begun to provide a rich subject-matter for academic analysis. An early example of this process was the Hart/Devlin debate at the start of the 1 9 6 0~.~ At one level, this debate concerned the desirability or otherwise of the Wolfenden Committee's proposal to decriminalise, in a limited range of circumstances, homosexual acts between men.3 More generally, however, the debate brought into play the relationship between law and morality, and the issue of the law's proper function in society. The HartIDevlin debate highlighted at least two useful and interconnected purposes which can be served by academic analysis of legal regulation of lesbian, bisexual and gay sexual orientations: first of all, such analysis can assist in testing the strength of practical arguments for (or against) reforming the law in this field; secondly, general academic theories concerning the proper functions of law can be used to shape practical arguments about the acceptability of the particular laws and law reform proposals under scrutiny. Homosexuality: A European Community Issue must be the most comprehensive collection of materials to date in the English language dealing with the treatment of lesbians, bisexuals and gay men under European Community law and the European Convention on Human right^.^ The work, coordinated by the European Human Rights Foundation at the behest of the European Parliament and *Lecturer in Law, University College London. I am grateful to Robert Wintemute and Lorraine Desai for their comments concerning aspects of this piece. Recent examples include Mohr, Gays/Justice: A Study of Ethics, Sociery and Law (Guildford: Columbia University Press, 1988); Jeffery-Poulter, Peers, Queers and Commons: m e Struggle for Gay Law Reform from I950 to the Present (London: Routledge, 1991); Wintemute, 'Sexual Orientation Discrimination' in McCrudden and Chambers (eds), Individual Rights and the Law in

BRILL eBooks, 2023

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

2014

Europe has long been regarded as a unique place for the promotion and furthering of LGBT rights. This important and compelling study investigates the alleged uniqueness and its ties to a relatively long history of LGBT and queer movements in the region. Contributors argue that LGBT movements were inspired by specific ideas about European democratic values and a responsibility towards human rights, and that they sought to realize these on the ground through activism, often crossing borders to foster a wider movement. In making this argument, they discuss the 'idea of Europe' as it relates to LGBT rights, the history of European LGBT movements, the role of European institutions in adopting LGBT policies, and the construction of European 'others' in this process.