How Estonian Bureaucracy Obstructs Gender Transition
Estonia prides itself on being a digital state built on efficiency and equal access. Yet for many trans people, accessing gender-affirming healthcare still means navigating bureaucracy and convincing a panel of experts that their identity is legitimate, as Sascha Lumi learned when beginning her legal and medical transitioning.
The fracturing of European feminism: How TERF ideology threatens decades of progress
Women's and LGBTIQ rights have advanced hand in hand across Europe for decades. But exclusionary movements within feminism threaten that progress. Where trans and queer-exclusive feminism takes hold, both women's and LGBTIQ rights lose ground.
Women’s Day: time to gaze beyond the mirror
On 8th of March (and always) we invite you to focus on intersectionality and think about how the plight of other marginalized groups affects us all.
Recognition to regression: protecting transgender rights ended in striking down self-perceived gender identity and its expression in Pakistan
Pakistani human rights activist Uzma Yakoob writes about the biggest victories and losses of the Pakistani trans community over the past decade.
Organisers of LGBTQ+ film festival in Russia: “We were a little naïve about the backlash that was going to happen!”
Estonian Rainbow Heroes of Culture, Gulya Sultanova and Manny de Guerre, who ran the LGBTQ+ film festival Side by Side in Russia, compare working in an atmosphere of bomb threats, intimidation and self-censorship to working to promote human rights in Russia in Estonia, where they run Q-Space, LGBTQ+ cultural program mainly aimed at the Russian-speaking community.
“In Lithuania, people are just tired.” An interview with Birutė Sabatauskaitė and Jūratė Juškaitė
The Baltic states are at very different points in terms of LGBT+ rights. Estonia lives in a bubble, says Jūratė Juškaitė from the Lithuanian Human Rights Centre.
Humanitarian Aws Jubair: Attacks against LGBTQ+ people have increased in Turkey
Aws Jubair, a refugee and LGBTQ+ activist, talks about the work of the Aman Project, which assists LGBTQ+ refugees in Turkey.
Have you ever heard of „Gayropa“?
American political scientist Kevin Snow, who worked as a researcher in Estonia, analyzes the geographical identity of Eastern Europe, more specifically, the role of rhetoric based on geographical identity in discussions of the rights of LGBT+ people. Considering that Estonia is located on the border of Europe where there is a war going on, this issue is particularly important here.