Educational Events

Jean Monnet Summer School keynote lecture: LGBTIQ+ equality policy: can the EU get it straight?

Practical information

Monday 03 July 2023, 17:00-18:00
VUB Etterbeek campus. Building I room 0.03
This event is free of charge, but registration is mandatory.

The Jean Monnet Summer School on EU Policy Making cordially invites you to its public keynote lecture organized in the framework of the summer school’s theme of analyzing civil rights in today’s EU.

Monday 3 July from 17:00h - 18:00h

Venue: Building I room 0.03

LGBTIQ+ equality has become one of the most polarizing topics in the European Union over the last decade. Russia has embedded the “fight against Gayropa” in its destabilization efforts in the EU. The Hungarian and Polish governments have implemented far-reaching anti-LGBTIQ+ policies. With his organization Forbidden Colours, Rémy Bonny has been leading several advocacy campaigns at the EU-level to protect the civil rights of LGBTIQ+ persons. In 2021, they revealed that the Hungarian government was introducing a Russia-style anti-LGBTIQ+ propaganda law. Since then, the organization has been advocating for the EU to take action. This has led to the largest lawsuit in the history of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) against an EU member state, with an increasing number of other member states joining the European Commission in a lawsuit.

Bonny will discuss the current situation for LGBTIQ+ communities in Europe, how EU instruments can be used to foster civil rights for LGBTIQ+ people, and how to trigger these instruments through advocacy work.

The event will start with a 30-minute presentation followed by Q&A with the hosts and audience.

Speaker:

Rémy Bonny (He/Him) is the Executive Director of Forbidden Colours, an organization working to deliver human rights and democracy for LGBTIQ+ persons in Europe. He’s an expert in monitoring the opposition towards LGBTIQ+ rights in the European Union and the way demands of the LGBTIQ+ communities (re)construct international relations. He brought state-sponsored discriminations towards the LGBTIQ+ communities to the attention of policy-makers, international media and the wider society.