BRUSSELS – The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights held an event on the rise of European ultra-conservativism, and the impact which this is having on LGBTI and reproductive rights, which was chaired by Hon. Terry Reintke, MEP (Germany/ Greens) and Hon. Malin Bjork, MEP (Norway/ Greens). As well as interventions from the hosting MEPs, the session included speeches from Hon. Julie Ward, MEP (UK/ S&D), Urszula Kuczyńska, organiser of the Czarny (Black) Protest in Poland, Katrin Hugendubel from ILGA Europe, and EPF Secretary, Neil Datta.
The EPF Secretary spoke about the new-found unity and infrastructure of anti-choice, anti-LGBTI and anti-feminist thinkers at the European Parliament, as detailed in last year’s report: “Restoring the Natural Order”: The religious extremists’ vision to mobilize European societies against human rights on sexuality and reproduction.
Overall, the event focused on current obstacles to the rights and social freedoms of LGBTI people and women in Europe, including the recent surge in ultra-conservative movements, and even the potential shift to the right which the UK’s imminent exit from the EU could provoke in the European Parliament. The threat of ‘radicalisation’ attracting an increasing number of younger people to harmful belief systems was compared to that of Islamist extremism, and all speakers agreed that this ideological threat must be taken seriously in order to prevent the rolling back of previously achieved social freedoms.
