Worldwide resistance against LGBT policies grows

The Dutch ministers of Education, Foreign Affairs and Foreign trade, therefore, want to intensify cooperation with nations that also want to implement more LGBT rights, Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad reports.

The politicians state that they notice a “growing number of EU countries that consequently block negotiations about documents on LGBT rights.” According to the ministers, these member states try to scrap all references to gender equality or discrimination based on sexual orientation. Even though they do not mention specific countries that do so, they point out that Hungary regularly targets the LGBT community and that a Czech proposal to legalise same-sex marriage received much critique.

Some countries oppose LGBT rights because they have a conservative stance on marriage and sexuality, the ministers point out. According to them, this explains why there is no joint statement yet on an EU report on citizenship.

The way in which the Netherlands defends LGBT rights is being hotly debated, especially while the World Championship is ongoing in Qatar, the Reformatorisch Dagblad writes. During the match between the Netherlands and Qatar, the Dutch minister of Sport, Conny Helder, wore a OneLove pin to make a statement for human rights and all forms of racism and discrimination. The Dutch LGBT organisation criticised her because she only wore the pin and not the OneLove band, which is much more visible.