Friday, 19. 11. 2021

Meeting of Rainbow Cities in Bergen

In early November, a regular annual meeting of the Rainbow Cities Network was held in Bergen, Norway.

The goal of the network and thus also of the regular annual meetings is primarily the exchange of information, good practices and experiences in the LGBT+ area. This year, in Ljubljana, we have prepared a new strategy for the development of social protection, which also touches on the LGBT+ field. Good practices of the City of Ljubljana are spreading elsewhere in Europe – for example, Reykjavik introduced a certificate for which they got the idea from our LGBT-Friendly Certificate.

At the meeting, they presented a report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, which shows that since 2012, when the survey was first conducted, the proportion of LGBT+ people who do not hide their sexual orientation and identity has increased, however, on the other hand, the level of fear, violence and discrimination is still very high (in some countries it has even risen drastically). This is particularly evident in Poland and Hungary, where discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people have increased in recent years.