page_title: LGBT rights in Belgium
section_title: Discrimination protections and hate crimes
hierarchical_section_title: LGBT rights in Belgium / Discrimination protections and hate crimes
caption_attribution_description: Pride.be - Pride 2018 - Your Local Power Feeling free and at home in your neighborhood, town or city. Be and show yourself in the streets. Holding hands with the person you love and smiling at each other in public. Our personal lives occur in the public space. Considering the approaching communal elections, everyone (youngsters, seniors, families, couples and all people - no matter what gender or orientation) asks the local politicians: How do you make a difference? What do you do to improve diversity in our everyday life? Where the rain makes way for the sun, we will walk proudly under the rainbow! We will all be heading to the voting booths for the local elections on 14th of October. Deciding which circle to colour in is an important decision. A conscious decision can lead to a better living environment in your city or municipality. And we're not just talking about the redesign of the local park, the policies in the municipal school, or the proper functioning of the local Public Centre for Social Welfare. Your local municipal or city administration can also make a real difference and turn the place where you live into a true rainbow bubble, if that's what you'd like, of course. So it's no wonder that this year's Pride is focusing on the local elections. Belgian Pride is putting the municipalities and cities in the limelight in 2018, or better yet, at the end of the rainbow! We want the slogan 'Your Local Power!' to encourage municipal and city administrations to enact explicit, integrated local LGBTI+ policies. Municipalities and cities can and must make the difference. They must accept responsibility for the well-being of all their residents. Flying the rainbow flag at the local government offices during the Pride period is a symbol of this. This is also a way that the municipality or city can show their solidarity with the LGBTI+ community. This symbolic gesture is not an infringement on neutrality. On the contrary, we can only actively work on ending all forms of discrimination once there is recognition for diversity and inclusion. Policy-makers can make the lives of many citizens that much rosier by taking both small and large actions: by introducing a diversity charter in sports clubs, by making information on gender and sexuality available at the local libraries, by providing logistical and financial support to local associations, testimonials, and courses in the municipal education system, by holding a queer film festival in the local movie theatre or cultural centre, by holding LGBTI+ actions in community centres and youth centres, by providing information on what to do if you are the victim or witness of discrimination, by offering space for intimacy and (LGBTI+) sexuality in assisted-living centres, by training local police precincts and municipal officials, by including Equal Opportunity as an explicit competence within the city administration, etc. The list of things that cities and municipalities can do is endless. Plus, many of these actions are very easy to implement. Sometimes, your local administration only needs a little boost, and you can give them that boost in the voting booth on 14th of October. A good local administration meets the needs and requirements of all residents. What does the LGBTI+ community in your city or municipality need? You can already send the politicians a signal that is loud and clear on Saturday, the 19th of May. Make your wishes heard during the Belgian Pride. We hope to see you there! Everyone is welcome! ( Chaque annee la Pride attire des dizaines de milliers de visiteurs vers la capitale et colore Bruxelles aux couleurs de l'arc-en-ciel. Il y a aussi le PrideVillage et le PridePodium autour de la Bourse. Pride.be n'est pas seulement la plus grande fete de Bruxelles, mais c'est aussi un evenement avec un message politique. Avec cette manifestation, nous essayons d'obtenir plus d'egalite de droits pour tout le monde et surtout pour la communaute lesbigaytrans. )
context_page_description: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender rights in Belgium are seen as some of the most progressive in Europe and in the world. Same-sex sexual activity was legalised in 1795, with an equal age of consent, except from 1965 until 1985. After granting same-sex couples domestic partnership benefits in 2000, Belgium became the second country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage in 2003. Same-sex adoption was fully legalised in 2006 and was equalised with that of heterosexual adoption, and lesbian couples can access IVF as well. Protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public and private accommodations were enacted in 2003 and on gender identity and expression in 2014. Transgender people have been allowed to change their legal gender since 2007, though under certain circumstances which were repealed in 2018.
  Belgium has frequently been referred to as one of the most gay-friendly countries in the world, with recent polls indicating that a majority of Belgians support same-sex marriage and adoption rights.
context_section_description: The anti-discrimination law of 25 February 2003 included discrimination protections on the basis of sex and sexual orientation. The law was replaced by a similar law in 2007, known as the Anti Discrimination Law 2007 (Dutch: Wet ter bestrijding van bepaalde vormen van discriminatie; French: Loi tendant à lutter contre certaines formes de discrimination; German: Gesetz zür Bekämpfung bestimmter Formen von Diskriminierung). The 2003 and 2007 anti-discrimination laws also establish penalty enhancements for crimes motivated by hate on the basis of, among others, sex and sexual orientation.
  On 29 November 2013, 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 2014.
  On 22 December 2014, the jury of the court of assizes of Liège found four people guilty of the murder of Ihsane Jarfi (fr), motivated by homophobia. 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.
  In May 2018, the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism reported it had processed 125 cases of homophobic discrimination in 2018, a 38% increase over the past five years. This included 17 physical attacks, 42 public homophobic insults, 17 housing discrimination cases, and 31 online attacks. A study, published in May 2019 and commissioned by Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities Bianca Debaets, found that 90% of LGBT people in Brussels had been the victim of verbal or psychological harassment, with a third stating that had been physically assaulted.
caption: ILGA-Europe at the 2018 Belgian Pride parade, Brussels
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