Estonia and Homosexuality: Between (little) Tolerance and Inclusion

The reopening of the public debate of homosexual-marriage started again in Europe a few days ago when Iceland´s PM Johanna Sigurdardottir became the first head of government to enter a gay marriage.

Last week in Finland, Estonia´s Prime Minister commenting on the marriage of his Icelandic equivalent, he referred to the situation of this community in the country when he was asked.

Ansip stated “I think that marriage between man and woman is a sacred relationship, but I totally accept the fact that same-sex cohabitation could have the same social guarantees, such as the married couples”.

After PM statement, Estonian Free Press contacted the Estonian Gay Youth association to have a deeper view of the reality in the country.

The law in Estonia does not forbid same sex relations, however in the view of Madle Saluveer, member of the Estonian Gay Youth association, it does not give any guarantees as well.

“In the Equal Treatment Law, it is only forbidden to discriminate somebody on the ground of sexual orientation at the workplace, whereas it is not mentioned in the areas of education or social services”

In Europe there are several countries like Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal or Spain that recognize same sex marriage but not Estonia. And it seems it is going to be like this for more time as the new Family Law, a provision that took effect from the first of July, states in its first article clearly that “Marriage is the union between a man and a woman”.

The new law also declares “null and void” the union between two people of the same sex, and this is a regulation that affects couples married in other countries as Mrs Saluveer explains “foreign couples who married in other countries like Iceland, Holland or Spain, wouldn’t be recognized as a married couple in Estonia”.

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip also referred to a possible future change in the regulations ruling in the Baltic States saying: “I do not believe that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would soon accept same-sex marriage in the eyes of the law, but it does not mean that same-sex couples living together would not be tolerated. This certainly not – Estonia is a tolerant country”

But for Mrs Saluveer, this statement could be understood in two ways “As what comes from the Prime Minister’s statement, I would like to stress that there’s a huge difference on being tolerant and being accepting and inclusive.”

“Estonia being a tolerant country to me reads exactly: “we do not ban your homosexual relations, we let you be (especially if you’re very quiet and don’t request more than you’re given)“, whereas giving LGBT-people the guarantees of having a legally recognized family would make Estonia an inclusive and accepting, open-minded European country”

According to the international league of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transsexuals and Intersex associations, there is a discrimination based on sexual orientation.
An affirmation that  The Estonian Gay Youth association supports with some examples: “We do have to agree that hateful acts and discrimination is present in Estonia towards LGBT-people”.

One of the most recent cases of discrimination for the homosexual community happened in Viimsi County, where the support for transportation and school dinners was denied to a lesbian couple.
The support was legally entitled to families raising 3 kids or more.

“Although it was guaranteed that being married is not a requirement to receive the support, they soon got turned down, with the authorities saying that because in Estonia a marriage is only legally possible between a man and a woman; their family cannot be considered as one.”

“The authorities in the county even changed the regulation after the incident, trying to ensure that it would only be possible for heterosexual couples to apply for the support” says Madle Sauveer.

The case ended up in court where the couple won the case.

According to Mrs Sauveer, in the roots of discrimination against this community is tradition. “Tradition is definitely a factor, because having a Soviet time background people are not used to have rights, knowing their rights and requesting their rights, not to mention the fact that gay relationships were banned during those times and lesbian relations pushed to invisibility”.

How the legal and social situation of the this community develops in the future is unclear, although it may seem that there could be a chance for change, because 2011 is going to be an important year for the gay community in the country as Tallinn will held the joint festival for LGBT rights of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the “Baltic Pride”.