EU Parliament Addresses Discrimination of Disabled Trans People

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation of women with disabilities in the EU on 20 November 2018. In it the Parliament also highlights repeatedly that disabled trans people are affected by intersectional discrimination. Disabled trans women may suffer further from racism, classism, age-discrimination, and anti-religious sentiments, and discrimination of disabled trans women is part of and drives also the feminisation of poverty. The Resolution therefore asks the EU Commission and Member States to implement measures supporting disabled trans women in the education and workplace. Member States should also develop strategies to combat bullying and harassment in schools but also online.

TGEU welcomes that disabled trans people have been identified for their increased risk of discrimination and impoverishment.

However, additionally TGEU asks the EU Commission and Member States to take specific actions ensuring the right to healthcare, freedom from torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, the right to live independently, and the respect for privacy of D/deaf and disabled trans people.

“I think one of the most important things for organisations to know, or perhaps remember, is the fact that dis/ability rights are always intertwined with other civil and human rights – simply because of the fact that dis/abled people are multifaceted persons. There is no ‘one issue’ to cover in that sense”.

Christine Bylund, Sweden based, crip- and femme-, in “Oppression Squared”, TGEU 2017

For more details on what D/deaf and disabled trans people face, see the report “Oppression Squared: D/deaf and disabled trans experiences in Europe”.

The report is the outcome of the 2017 Expert Meeting in Berlin where 10 D/deaf and/or disabled rights experts with experience of trans and LGBIQ activism from Canada, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Sweden participated. The meeting and report was facilitated by Nathan Gale.

EU Parliament report European Parliament resolution on the situation of women with disabilities

Key policy demands from “Oppression Squared”