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Gay rights group gets official EU status

  • 10-12-2004 10:17pm
    #1
    damien
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,290 ✭✭✭


    http://uk.gay.com/headlines/7233
    A leading gay rights group working with MEPs in the European Union has been given official status by the European Parliament.

    The Gay and Lesbian Intergroup works with MEPs, civil servants and lobbyists to ensure lesbian and gay issues are at the forefront of debates made by representatives of member states.

    Additionally, it works to ensure demands made by LGB people from across the EU zone are included on the European agenda, while focusing not only on success but also failures.

    By receiving official support the Gay and Lesbian Intergroup will be able to continue lobbying the EU and its institutions with a renewed sense of urgency. It also means member states will have to recognise its cause as a valid one irrespective of their own opinions.

    Michael Cashman, Labour MEP for the West Midlands and the UK's only gay MEP says although the EU has seen radical change, the Intergroup will be invaluable in pushing lesbian and gay rights even more.

    “This is great news and will mean that the Gay and Lesbian Intergroup can build on its achievements from the last parliaments," he said today.

    "The European Parliament has already pushed through ground-breaking legislation to prevent discrimination against gay and lesbian people inside and outside the workplace right across Europe," he added.

    “The Gay and Lesbian Intergroup will keep the pressure on all the institutions of the European Union to push the gay rights agenda further forward."

    He said that the group would b particularly valuable in the fight against right wing political parties and their members. This comes just months after Italian commissioner elect Rocco Buttiglione was forced to withdraw his nomination for the new team of commissioners after he admitted he viewed homosexuality as a "sin".

    "The Intergroup will be a powerful voice against the right-wing and homophobic elements in European politics who would like to re-impose their backward and Victorian values on the rest of society,” Cashman said.

    The Intergroup was formed in 2000 and since then has lobbied on a variety of issues, including work rights, legal recognition for same-sex couples and the impact of joining the EU on new member states and their gay populations.


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