Égalité - LGBTI staff of the European Union institutions

10/12/2025

No better day than Human Rights Day for our meeting with European Parliament Vice-President Nicu Ștefănuță.

Today, we had the opportunity to present what Égalité has accomplished during this mandate, highlight our ongoing work, and raise our concerns about the alarming rise in hate speech, particularly targeting the trans and non-binary community, across EU institutions.

We are sincerely grateful for your allyship and for your courage in standing up for democracy, human rights and for every minority during these challenging times🌈🇪🇺

Today and every day, we’re united in diversity🤝

Find out more about Égalité, the LGBTIQ+ staff association of all EU institutions 🔗 www.egalite-online.eu

25/11/2025

Historic win for same-s*x couples across Europe!

Today, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that EU Member States must recognise a same-s*x marriage concluded in another EU country when couples have exercised their freedom to move and reside.

This means that couples who build a family life in one EU country must be able to continue that family life when returning home without being forced to live as legal strangers.

The Court confirmed that refusing to recognise these marriages:
❌ violates EU free movement rules
❌ breaches the right to private & family life
❌ is discrimination based on s*xual orientation

This decision is especially significant for couples in Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, where same-s*x relationships still receive no legal recognition and all EU countries that do not provide for marriage equality.

We stand with the brave applicants and our partners fighting for equality in Poland and across the region.

A huge thank you to the legal team from Kancelaria KMA Law Firm: Artur Kula, Paweł Knut, Anna Mazurczak, and Milena Adamczewska-Stachura, who made today possible.

Read more in the comments ⬇️

13/11/2025

Trans Awareness Week begins today — 13–19 November 🏳️‍⚧️

Today marks the start of Trans Awareness Week. Throughout the week, we will highlight TGEU’s Trans Murder Monitoring 2025 project, which provides the most up-to-date insight into anti-trans violence across the globe.

This year’s data shows a mixed picture for Europe:
📉 Reported murders have decreased compared to 2024.
But Europe accounts for only 5% of all reported murders worldwide, showing that the crisis is overwhelmingly global.

Key findings include:
🌍 Known murders of trans people worldwide have doubled over the past two years.
92% of victims were trans women and trans feminine people.
58% of cases involved migrants, s*x workers, or people experiencing homelessness.
40% of victims were under 30 years old.

Europe cannot ignore that trans people globally face escalating and deadly violence and that safety and dignity remain far from guaranteed here.

Throughout Trans Awareness Week, we will continue to highlight findings from the report and uplift trans communities across Europe.

27/10/2025

22/10/2025

Égalité is proudly joining ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference in Vilnius 🇱🇹🇪🇺

This annual gathering brings together activists and allies from across Europe and Central Asia for an essential moment of exchange, reflection, and strategy-building.

The world is changing, and so must we. This conference is an opportunity to rethink our strategies, strengthen alliances, and renew our shared commitment to equality and human rights for all. It’s the right moment to reflect and make strong choices for the future, face forward 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇪🇺

Our movements are facing challenges unlike any seen before. Democratic values are under pressure, fundamental rights and freedoms are being rolled back, and anti-rights forces are increasingly organised and vocal. Across many countries, media freedom, freedom of assembly, and even the ability of civil society to operate are being restricted.

At the same time, LGBTIQ+ communities — particularly trans, inters*x, racialised people and refugees — continue to face disproportionate hostility and are placed at the centre of divisive public debates, used as scapegoats.

Thank you ILGA-Europe for creating such safe and empowering spaces for our collective reflection and action.

Learn more about this year’s conference theme 🔗 https://www.ilga-europe.org/annual-conference-2025/

More about Égalité 🔗 https://egalite-online.eu

23/09/2025

Bis*xual visibility grows with gathering in Vilnius

Last year on Bi Visibility Day we highlighted survey findings that showed both the vibrancy and the challenges facing bi+ groups in Europe, including lack of recognition, resources and visibility within the wider LGBTI movement. https://www.ilga-europe.org/blog/a-new-voice-for-the-bi-movement/

This year many bi+ activists from across the continent will come together in Vilnius in October for a dedicated three day gathering organised by Bi+ Equal, just before ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference. With 50 in person participants from 25 countries and additional online participation, the event has drawn significant interest that shows the energy and commitment within the bi+ community.

The programme will include workshops, panels, community building activities and governance discussions. For many participants it will be a chance to connect with peers, exchange experiences and reflect on how to strengthen bi+ organising across Europe.

The strong response to this gathering underlines what last year’s research already showed: bi+ people want and need spaces where their realities are seen, understood and prioritised.

More details, including how to join online, are available: https://www.biplusequal.org/conference

16/09/2025

Our deepest condolences 🥀
Rest in power

Dear TGEU members and community,

It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that the Board and staff of TGEU announce the passing of our beloved Executive Director, Tuisina Ymania Brown, while in hospital in Berlin, Germany, after planned heart surgery.

Ymania was more than a compassionate leader; she embodied trans resilience, wisdom, and transformative power. Ymania's uplifting, creative and powerful personality touched everyone who knew her. Her leadership was visionary because it was grounded in lived experience, cultural wisdom, and an unwavering commitment to collective liberation.

Ymania understood that trans leadership means lifting others as we climb. She spent her life creating pathways for those who would follow.

She consistently demonstrated that our power lies in our ability to transform systems from within while never forgetting where we came from.

Perhaps most importantly, Ymania embodied the principle of collective care that is vital to our movement. She was a trans activist, a mother, grandmother, and mentor who understood that our strength comes from taking care of one another. She showed us that it is possible to transform pain into power, isolation into community, and struggle into leadership for systemic change.

“As trans people, sometimes we have felt that we have no roots or no family. But Ymania Brown is our ancestor, our trans genealogy. Each time we lose a voice that defends human rights, we lose more than an individual; we lose a force of dignity, equality and justice. Her life is our trans legacy: we live, we fight, we love not in her memory, but in her actions.”

- Isa Nico Borrelli, David Cuka, TGEU Co-Chairs

Ymania's passing leaves an immeasurable void in our movement and our team, but her legacy and impact live on in every law changed, every life saved, and every trans person who finds strength and hope because of the ground she helped us claim.

She taught us that trans leadership is about transformation, healing, and the radical act of imagining and building worlds where all trans people can thrive. As Ymania would often say, trans people’s existence is not exceptional. But it is not negotiable.

Our deepest condolences are with her sons, her family, her trans sisters, her comrades, and all who loved her. Rest in power, Ymania.

We have set up a page for anyone who would like to share a memorial for Ymania. We invite you to join us in celebrating Ymania and carrying forward the world she believed we all deserve: https://remembr.com/ymania.brown

In solidarity and with infinite gratitude,
The Board and Staff of TGEU — Trans Europe and Central Asia

11/09/2025

We welcome the Opinion of the Advocate General in CJEU saying that EU Member States must allow legal gender recognition!

The case was brought forward by a Bulgarian trans woman currently living in Italy. Her requests to legally amend her gender marker and name on her Bulgarian documents were repeatedly denied by Bulgarian courts.

In a major development, the Advocate General stated that under EU law provisions on freedom of movement and fundamental right to private and family life, Member States have an obligation to legally recognise the lived gender of their nationals.

Together with Bilitis, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Deystvie, and TGEU (Trans Europe and Central Asia), we’re proud to support the applicant and her lawyers in this case.

Read the full joint statement on our website: https://www.ilga-europe.org/news/joint-statement-landmark-cjeu-opinion-demands-legal-gender-recognition-across-eu/