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This was briefly increased to 18 for same-sex sexual activity between and by the addition and later repeal of article bis to the Penal Code. It was inserted by an amendment of MP Freddy Terwagne d to the law of 8 April on youth protection. The Senate eventually concurred in June ; article bis was thus repealed by the law of 18 June Belgium became the second country to allow same-sex marriages in after the Netherlands.
Same-sex couples have had the same rights as opposite-sex couples in adopting children since A legal inequality compared to heterosexual couples still existed with regards to children: the husband of the biological mother was automatically legally recognised as the father by article of the Civil Code , but this was not the case in a same-sex couple for the wife of the mother. To be recognised as the co-mother, she had to complete an adoption procedure. This accounted for the large majority of adoption cases in Belgium. The Di Rupo Government promised to fix this, and in , as the Netherlands recently passed similar legislation, LGBT organisations pressured the government about their promise.
Subsequently, legislators worked to agree on a solution. The bill received royal assent on 5 May and went into effect on 1 January Generally, adoption law is regulated at the federal level, whereas the adoption procedure is managed by the community governments. Between and , 56 male same-sex couples and two female same-sex couples had domestically adopted a child in the Flemish Community Flanders.
In the same period, 12 children were domestically adopted in the French Community , giving a total of 70 LGBT domestic adoptions in Belgium in that period. The anti-discrimination law of 25 February included discrimination protections on the basis of sex and sexual orientation. On 29 November , the Federal Government approved an expansion of the anti-discrimination law to include gender identity and gender expression. It was approved by the Federal Parliament and received royal assent on 22 May It was the first case in Belgium in which a crime was officially qualified as being motivated by hate on the basis of sexual orientation.
This included 17 physical attacks, 42 public homophobic insults, 17 housing discrimination cases, and 31 online attacks. Between and , there was a yearly average of 31 men and 14 women who officially changed their legal gender, with an increase after the law came into in effect. Plans to amend the law to remove these requirements were announced by the Michel Government in , [20] [21] [22] passed by the Chamber of Representatives and signed by King Philippe in , [23] [24] and took effect on 1 January Currently, it is only possible to change gender on the identity card from male to female or vice versa, but according to the court, persons who are non-binary are excluded from this rule.
The court held that an " X " sex option should be available. The Constitutional Court has asked the Belgian Federal Parliament to work on an arrangement that complies with the ruling, whether through the "creation of one or more additional categories" or the removal of gender from compulsory registration. Their coalition agreement states that "legislation will be amended in accordance with the ruling of the Constitutional Court.
The further implications of that will be investigated. In order to change legal sex, an adult person has to file an application with a statement that their legal sex is not corresponding with their gender identity. No surgery or other medical or psychological treatment or opinion is required. After filing an application, the applying person will be informed about the legal consequences of a requested change.
The applicant has to renew their intent to have their legal sex changed within three months of application and to declare that they are aware of the legal consequences of a change. Minors between 12 and 16 have the possibility to change their first name, but not sex. Minors aged 16 and 17 have the possibility to apply for a sex change with parental consent and a psychological opinion confirming that their decision has been taken freely and without any outside pressure. According to the National Register, transgender Belgians changed their legal gender under the new law in Many Belgian hospitals, the Ghent University Hospital UZ Gent among them, are known for their specialisation in sex reassignment surgery.
Many French transgender people go there due to a lack of accepting hospitals in France.
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Intersex infants in Belgium may undergo medical interventions to have their sex characteristics altered. Human rights groups increasingly consider these surgeries unnecessary and, they argue, should only be performed if the applicant consents to the operation. In February , the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended Belgium to ban these surgeries and provide intersex infants and their parents counseling and support.
The first intersex organization in Flanders, Intersekse Vlaanderen , was officially registered in August In Belgium, as in many other countries, men who have sex with men MSM were previously not allowed to donate blood. In , the blanket ban was repealed and replaced with a one-year deferral period. In November , she announced the ban would be amended in , making it possible for gay and bisexual men to donate blood after a year of abstinence from sex.
In June , the Flemish Red Cross announced it was banning transgender people from donating blood in Flanders.
Following consultations with health and LGBT groups, it reversed course and lifted the ban on 30 September Transgender people can donate subject to a three-month deferral period after starting hormonal therapy and a month deferral after the last sexual encounter. LGBT people are generally well socially accepted in Belgium. There is a strong gay community, with numerous gay clubs, bars, venues and events.
LGBT rights are supported by the main political parties. In , party leader Tom Van Grieken said the party would not campaign to repeal same-sex marriage. Member of the Flemish Parliament Filip Dewinter told the newspaper De Standaard in that the party would now approve of same-sex marriage. On 2 April , the Flemish Parliament approved 96—0 with 15 abstentions a resolution introduced by MP Piet De Bruyn N-VA and supported by all political parties except Flemish Interest , calling for the government to take measures to support and advance the acceptance of transgender people in society.
Following the European Parliament elections, the New Flemish Alliance N-VA was criticized for joining the European Conservatives and Reformists parliamentary group, which contains several right-wing homophobic parties. However, N-VA asserted they would vote in favour of LGBT rights, and argued that this was an opportunity to change opinions of other parties in that group. In , Dominiek Spinnewyn-Sneppe, newly-elected federal member of Parliament and member of Flemish Interest, was quoted in an interview as criticizing same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.
After public outcry, party chairman Tom Van Grieken condemned her words, claiming they did not reflect his own opinion or that of the party. While he defended her right to free speech, he claimed that Flemish Interest will not seek to reverse any acquired rights of the LGBT community. Homosexuality is widely accepted in the media. The first TV personality to publicly come out as gay was singer Will Ferdy nl in , when the topic was still taboo.
LGBT rights in Belgium - Wikipedia
This received widespread media coverage. Belgian gay rights activism is made most visible by means of pride parade demonstrations. Marches have been held annually in Belgium's capital Brussels since , with similar events having been held intermittently in preceding years in both Brussels and other cities. While the marches have a festive character, they are also used to present the gay movement's political agenda in the form of a list of demands.
The list has been updated a number of times and has included demands for anti-discrimination laws, inclusion of gay relationships in high school sex education and the right to adoption by same-sex parents. In the march, some participants were seen with a banner "Thank you Verhofstadt! The name was adopted for the first ever Belgian demonstration march for gay rights in , taken from the same-named series of Dutch marches which were first held in After this first short series of annual events, it was only in that the decision was made to again organise the marches regularly, starting anew on 5 May in Antwerp and then bi-annually in Ghent and again in Antwerp.
The latter choice of city was motivated by what is known as "Black Sunday", when the right-wing party Vlaams Blok now Vlaams Belang scored a major electoral victory in Antwerp. That's something for a psychologist to unravel. After all, while it's certainly true that not all gay men are "soft," it's also true that some of them are. The gay guy who would rather be belting out some Barbra Streisand than shooting hoops is not just a stereotype.
He exists, too. He's probably been spared the awful loneliness and anxiety of living for 34 years without being open about his sexuality to those closest to him, as Collins did, but he probably had less of a choice in the matter. The first time he had an anti-gay slur hurled at him may have happened before he even came out to himself. In fact, like year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover , he may only be perceived as gay. Mainstream gay rights advocates seem largely optimistic that the visibility—and acceptance—of gay male athletes like Collins and Rogers will help that guy, too.
Even the jocks are gay. And there's a message to bullies: gay kids are not second-class citizens. But it's not completely clear that showing that "even the jocks are gay" necessarily makes things better for those guys gay or straight who don't so readily conform to traditional masculine norms. Since gayness and femininity are still so linked, it's nearly impossible to determine what homophobia's driving factor is.
As Kimmel explained to me, "As long as we think homosexuality is about effeminacy in men—as long as we think we can tell if a guy's gay if he's acting 'feminine'—then we can't tease it out. For now, though, it's hard to say: Is being a feminine man bad because it's considered evidence that you're gay? Or is being gay bad because it's seen as feminine? Or are both bad? And if the association between femininity and gayness is severed, what happens next?
The changes over the last two decades may provide some clues. After all, anti-gay attitudes in the United States have declined dramatically since the s and '90s. As recently as ten years ago, the public was evenly divided on whether homosexuality should be accepted or discouraged by society. Today, 59 percent of Americans say it should be accepted, according to a Gallup poll released recently. For the past three years, more Americans support same-sex marriage than oppose it. The most recent Pew Research Center survey , conducted this past March, found 49 percent in favor, compared to 44 percent opposed—and other polls have put the level of support even higher.
About two-thirds of the public thinks that gay and lesbian couples can be as good parents as heterosexual couples and that they should have the same legal rights as their straight counterparts. Among young people, especially, anti-gay views are decidedly the exception. About three-quarters of millennials believe homosexuality should be accepted and 70 percent support same-sex marriage. And, in large part, it is young men who have been driving this trend.
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Ever since we've been asking about it in public opinion polls, men have been more likely than women to espouse anti-gay views—a fact that buttressed the theory that masculinity is intimately connected with homophobia, says Tristan Bridges , assistant professor of sociology at The College at Brockport, SUNY. But just recently that gender gap has begun to narrow.
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Among millennials, it's virtually non-existent: 69 percent of young women support same-sex marriage, compared to 65 percent of young men. Though homophobia is by no means eradicated—after all, Bridges points out, straight men especially still seem be far more comfortable with gay identity than actual gay sex —the largely supportive response to Collins and Rogers coming out would seem to reflect a real and rapid change in anti-gay attitudes, which should certainly be celebrated.
What's far less clear is whether this shift is actually changing the way homophobia is used as a weapon for maintaining traditional masculinity. That's what sociologist C. Pascoe found when she spent a year and a half at a California high school doing research for her book, Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Homophobic slurs were tossed around constantly, but the students insisted they weren't really about sexual orientation. That's just mean,'" she told me. Instead, boys labeled their peers "fags" for things like dancing, being too emotional, caring about clothing, being incompetent, or not have success with girls.
While actually being gay wasn't exactly accepted, Pascoe discovered that it wasn't nearly as bad as being considered an unmasculine guy. As one student told her , "Well, being gay is just a lifestyle. You can still throw a football around and be gay. But the third boy, who broke both the norms of sexuality and gender, faced such severe tormenting that he eventually dropped out of school.