What is the situation in Europe?

To say that everyone in Europe is ok with homosexuality would be simply untrue. In France, same sex marriage will be incorporated into law in a couple of months, so that's why there are protests. They mostly come from the Catholic church and rural France.

As a whole, though, Europe today is one of the main centers of gay rights growth. In my opinion, the important thing is that gay rights are now seen as a product of civilization. Basically, Europe is fighting for this not because it should, but because it wants to. This goes deep into society because of the consistency of such policies.

Even in backwards countries, like Croatia, in which I live, gay rights are now something most common people would say is a normal thing. Of course we have protests, but it seems there is no going back. That's thanks to the european winds of change.

 

Two Women Kiss In Front Of Anti-Gay Protests In Marseille, France

A picture is worth a thousand words. ^ Not to mention that the two girls are straight.

But the truth is that it depends on which part of Europe you're referring to. Most people here have the "why'd you care what they do on their bed" attitude but I wouldn't say that there is acceptance. Things are changing, though, despite no talks being done about LGBT rights.

In other countries, such as Sweden, I've heard there's hardly, if at all, any discrimination against LGB people. Not so sure about the rights of trans* people, tbh, though.

 

The north and west of Europe are pretty accepting. Quite a few countries have legalised gay marraige in the past years (The Netherlands being the first country worldwide to legalise it, in 2001), including Spain and Portugal, two of the most southern European countries. Others (France, UK, , Luxembourg, Germany too I believe) are planning to legalise it in a few months. Here's a map for you

And yes, I read about the protests in Paris too. Considering they were headline news even outside of France I'd say anti-gay protests are pretty rare here. And while the article I read stated that about 300.000 people would protest in Paris, it also said that over 50% of the French population (bear in mind France has a population of more than 63 million) is in favour of same sex marriage. So it's nothing more than a drop in the ocean and I'd say your view of France being more liberal is quite right

 

As far as I know, in the end there were 100k people in that protest actually. And later, there was also a counter protest.. well, not protest, because the law is bound to pass; lets say support gathering. I think there were 60k people in that one.

---------- Post added 13th Jan 2013 at 04:21 PM ----------

And yes, church attendance is horrible. There are 86% declared believers in Croatia and church attendance is at least ten times less. You can see that on Christmad and Easter when maybe a half go and it's still obviously far above normal Sunday, let alone weekdays.

 

People say that North of Europr and Scandinavia are quite accepting, which probably is at least partly true. But I live in Finland and have got my own share of negative attitudes. Perhaps discrimination here isn't as strong as somewhere else, but it does exist.

In Finland, gay marriage is not going to be legalised any time soon, nor gay adoption. There is also a law that forces people who want to change gender to not ever be able to have children, which has caused a lot of protests recently. But usually you can walk hand in hand in the street without being verbally or physically attacked. If someone is against you, it's usually the older people or the religious people, or those who share very old-fashioned values. Which is typical here.

 

Ah I didn't know, I only read about expectations beforehand. But the actual 100k is definitely better than the 300k they expected to show up!

 

I just read some articles about the huge event against gay marriage that took place today in Paris. It gathered about 350.000 people, who all screamed the usual things such as "Marriage is between a man and a woman!" or "Don't accept it, it ruins children's lives!"... Some of them went to far, making a comparison between the actual president and Hitler, but the leaders of the movement quickly apologized for this.
As some said, it was greatly constitued by old religious people, but what surprised me the most is that there were some young teenagers and, even worse, little children brought by their parents.
I can't tell how much I am irritated, but mostly disappointed. I always try to prepare myself for that kind of event but at the end I can't help it. Uh D:

 

TIL that if you wear all white and female, you have the right to complain about anything

 

Things is people keep talking about the 'big' demonstration and sure 350 thousand people is a large group.
But put into perspective it's less than 1% of the population.

 

Ah, my apologies. I thought we were talking about the protest a couple of months ago. I wasn't aware of the one today.

No matter the percentage, 350k is a worrying number. Hopefully these people will think differently in a decade or two.

 

I think there is lot of gay in Europe (Germany).

 

I hope so, or at least I hope they will quickly understand that THEY are the ones creating troubles and confusing their children, as they like to say. If they could take the 5 minutes it would need to explain this is just love, we wouldn't be in this kind of situation.
I also think many people, since they grew without knowing homosexuality exists, just fear the unkown and let their emotions keeping them away from facing the truth.

But as you said Dalmatian, let's keep hope

 

I have been to France and have taken french for years.

I don't have as much experience in this topic, but here's what a gay American can tell you ---

Europe, in general, is very accepting. Their culture, as a whole, focuses on life and important things. I think part of this comes from the way they live. They use less energy, live a less stressed life....etc. also, as a theory ---- Europeans handle religion very differently. Catholicism might be very conservative - but things like the Westboro Baptist Church and the mega church crazies happen here.

When I was in France, I never remember anyone giving me crap. I did a home stay. One of the nights, my friend (American) stayed with me because we found out her close friend passed away from cancer. They let her stay...with me. Aka - sleep on the same bed. They knew I was gay and it didn't matter.

SURE, there are protests. There are protests everywhere. But I never saw anything. It was nice.

 

Well, I live in a country of middle Europe, where gay people are not really accepted. We don't even have registered same-sex partnerships legalized here However, things got a liiiittle better now, we've got two pride parades so far. But when you read the comments on the internet after that, it was like 90% of them were really hateful. But I know things are quite good in the UK and in Netherlands...

 

There's quite a divide between Catholic and Protestant countries, even if they're not particularly religious. There's also a divide between Western Europe and the less-developed Eastern Europe - my friends from over there aren't homophobic themselves, but it's considered a big thing nonetheless. It's odd though, as I don't think LGBT rights are necessarily conducive to public attitudes towards homosexuality (both interact with each other but I'd say the latter are more important). For example, countries such as South Africa and Argentina have legalised gay marriage whilst Germany and the UK don't have gay marriage just yet and Denmark's only came into force recently.

 

Tempting. This is the impression l've always had. Even with some American Catholics.

l haven't known many who turned away from their family and religion entirely, but l did get the sense that they didn't take it NEARLY as seriously as some crazed American fire & brimstone types do and possibly didn't even believe in it but went along with it for social reasons.

l used to think l really wouldn't want to live anywhere other than the US at the end od the day but...l don't know.

 

The situation in Germany is quite good, actually. I have relatives there as well, I've already been there multiple times and speak German fluently.
They have a few gay politicians and their foreign minister and vice chancellor is a gay man. He attends official events with his partner, I've seen them on TV. And at my cousins school there were several openly gay/lesbian teachers and no one really cared.