The campaign “You start making Europe” has started: 82 candidates have already signed the commitment for the rights of LGBT people, led by The Other Europe for Tsipras (36) and the 5 Star Movement (21).
Bologna, May 5, 2014 – A 10-point platform, entitled "Come Out" and developed by ILGA Europe (International Gay & Lesbian Association), which reviews all the actions the European Parliament can take to fully recognize the rights of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex) people: this is the commitment that Arcigay, together with Anddos (a national association against discrimination based on sexual orientation), is asking of Italian candidates for the European Parliament. The platform is the heart of the campaign. “You start making Europe” that Arcigay and Anddos are putting into play for the 2014 European elections and which officially starts today with the online publication of the website www.cominciatu.eu. “The objective – explains the president of Arcigay, Flavio Romani – is first and foremost to bring the issue of rights recognition to the center of this election campaign debate, which must become the true single currency of this Europe. Today, the map of rights is patchy, and this profound inequality betrays the spirit in which the European Union was born: it cannot fail to be considered a priority. ILGA, the international LGBTI federation of which Arcigay is a member, has outlined ten actions to provide the European Parliament with an agenda for the next five years: we ask our country's candidates to commit to these actions.
The ten actions included in the Come Out platform include the adoption of a roadmap for the recognition of equal rights for LGBTI people, strict monitoring of human rights in member states, the completion of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, and a legislative commitment to combat homophobic and transphobic violence and to protect its victims. They also call for the promotion of an inclusive definition of family, including single-parent and homoparent families, and the protection of the rights of trans people, including through a review of the requirements for legal gender recognition, an issue of particular concern in Italy, where such recognition is conditional upon the completion of a surgical procedure. Finally, the platform includes actions against school bullying, discrimination and inequalities in healthcare policies, and guarantees for the full implementation of EU legislation regarding LGBTI asylum seekers.
I am already 82 The Italian candidates who have signed up to the Come Out platform: 36 are from the “The Other Europe for Tsipras” list, 21 from the 5 Star Movement, 15 from the Democratic Party, 7 from European Choice, 2 from the Greens, 1 from Forza Italia. On the site www.cominciatu.eu voters will be able to sign a petition, distributed on the circuit change.org, to urge candidates to commit. ”In addition to asking for their subscription to the platform,” Romani continues, “we will monitor the actions and subsequent statements of the candidates, both male and female, and then of those elected.”.
The campaign portal will monitor candidates from eight of the lists running in the May 25 election (Democratic Party, Five Star Movement, Forza Italia, Brothers of Italy-National Alliance, The Other Europe for Tsipras, NCD-UDC, Northern League, and European Choice), recording their membership in the Come Out platform and any public comments or positions they have taken on the LGBTI community's concerns in an easily searchable database. This information will be used to influence voters' votes: on the homepage in fact, voting tips will appear, represented as matches between two exponents of the same party evaluated (one with a thumbs up, the other with a thumbs down) based on their statements on LGBTI rights. Within each party, therefore, candidates deemed reliable will be identified and promoted, to the detriment of those deemed unreliable. Finally, Each Internet user will be able to vote online for their favorite candidates, helping to determine their “rainbow factor”, A score that, along with the Ilga platform and Arcigay's assessment, will help determine the profile of each candidate. "A sort of mini-primary, online and across political parties," Romani explains, "that calls on the LGBT community and its supporters to determine a "bottom-up" screening of the electoral lists.".
The site cominciatu.eu It will also be the hub and platform for all the offline initiatives that make up the "You Start Making Europe" campaign: stalls, debates, flash mobs, interviews with candidates, and leaflet distributions led by volunteers from Arcigay clubs across Italy. In the aftermath of the vote, the site will become a tool for closely monitoring the 73 Italian MEPs and a direct contact channel between the electorate and their representatives in Strasbourg.
“You start making Europe” is a campaign conceived by Arcigay, and supported by funding from the Open Society Institute Foundation in collaboration with Osife (Open Society Initiative for Europe). The project benefits from the contribution of Anddos (National Association against discrimination based on sexual orientation) and the collaboration of Ireos. The site www.cominciatu.eu It is made by Creative milk.