Is It Safe Beyond the Gender Binary?

What it means to be genderqueer in the EU.

Year after year, genderqueer people are becoming more visible in the media and society as a whole. However, the discrimination that this community faces is still prevalent. It comes in the forms of housing and employment insecurities, lack of access to healthcare, media stigma and censorship, political propaganda dehumanising genderqueer folks, bullying and harassment… As a consequence, genderqueer people (especially transgender, nonbinary, intersex and gender non-conforming folks) live in a constant state of fear. Not only because they are discriminated against daily, but because they also lack legal protection.

Artwork: Trinity/Tumblr

A clear example of both social and legal prejudice towards genderqueer citizens can be seen within the European Union. Currently, EU law protects people against discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, the absence of laws protecting genderqueer folks before national courts explains the lack of judicial guidance on the sanctions that should be implemented when transphobic or intersex-motivated discrimination occurs. By leaving the genderqueer community in such a vulnerable state, discrimination against said community within the EU has continued to be a concerning issue. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) observed in its 2014 report, Being Trans in the EU, “serious and repetitive victimisation [throughout] the EU [towards transgender and transsexual citizens].” Trans respondents reported high levels of discrimination in various sectors, including employment, education and healthcare. They were also more likely to face violence, with the “annual incidence rate of harassment [being] around one incident per two trans respondents, which is twice as high as the incidence rates for lesbian, gay and bisexual respondents.” Furthermore, legal protection for nonbinary and intersex people is also weak due to the fact that the legal framework of the EU is firmly grounded in a binary conception of sex and the medicalised picture of trans populations.

When being interviewed about the lack of legal representation of transgender people in Europe, Marco Perolini, Amnesty International’s expert on discrimination, explained how “many transgender people have to overcome enormous difficulties in coming to terms with their identity, and problems are often compounded by blatant state discrimination.” This statement reinforces the need to support the most discriminated part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Without explicit laws and treaties protecting genderqueer people, this community will continue to be a victim of oppression, gaslighting, abuse and neglect.

Genderqueer people spend years trying to show their true colours, only to be reminded day after day that they are not welcome in a world of black and white. There is a need for change, legally and socially, in order to see the world in colour.

By Anna Alandete

25/08/2021