LGBTI+
BRUNO DE LILLE
LGBTI+ …
Regularly I put my opinion, my thoughts on Queer- & LGBTI+ topics on paper. Or I talk to Queer- & LGBTI+ activists and supporters who have helped our movement. I brought all these texts together on this page. Read along!
Scaly Kep’na: “Ne dites jamais non à soi-même. Jamais.”
Découvrez la puissante histoire de Scaly Kep’na, un militant congolais des droits de l’homme. De son coming-out à son engagement en faveur d’une société plus inclusive, l’histoire de Scaly est une source d’inspiration pour nous tous. Lisez comment il brise les tabous et construit des ponts dans une société qui a encore du mal à faire respecter les droits des LGBT.
Scaly Kep’na: “Never say no to yourself”
Discover the powerful story of Scaly Kep’na, a Congolese human rights activist. From his coming-out to his commitment to a more inclusive society, Scaly’s story is an inspiration to us all. Read how he breaks taboos and builds bridges in a society still struggling with LGBT rights.
‘Only by engaging in dialogue with all students, you will turn the school playground into a training ground for democracy’
On the International Day Against Homo- and Transphobia (IDAHOT), activist Bruno De Lille calls on schools to make real work of equality and inclusion for all. 'Many schools are too often trying to avoid these discussions.' We live in a polarized society and of course...
‘Let’s welcome Ukrainian LGBTI+ refugees’
'When we see that some groups are less well helped elsewhere while we have the people and the expertise to accommodate them, we must go all the way,' writes Bruno De Lille. He calls for attention to the situation of LGBTI+ persons on the run. No, we should not make...
Why I keep waving the rainbow flag
No, we as LGBTI+ people should not be “discreet” if we want equal rights. Those who say that demonstrate above all how much work remains.
Stickers to worry about
"Oh well, why worry about a few silly stickers. The police would be better off dealing with the serious cases. Just look at what just happened to that journalist (who became the victim of a homophobic attack), they should deal with that." That's what I was told, in a...
Violence against LGBTI+-persons, a ‘Brussels’ problem?
On Friday, VRT journalist Riadh Bahri was the victim of homophobic violence. " Walking the dog. Man asks for directions. I am kind and naive enough to answer. Getting hit. Getting kicked. Chain ripped off and stolen. Hearing dirty faggot. Crying a little in the...
‘You don’t always need a war to make the lives of a lot of people a living hell’
In the Netherlands, André van Duin moved the entire country with his speech at the Commemoration of the Dead, 76 years after the end of WWII. Remarkably, André van Duin said it was his first time attending the official commemoration of the dead. All previous years he...
‘It’s about time for more rights for rainbow families’
Our son turned eighteen. Because of the corona crisis, there wasn't much of a celebration, but he seems to like the idea of being an adult. However, his joy is nothing compared to ours, his parents. The fact that we were able to help a son grow up can be called a...
‘It’s time to dispel the misconception that sport and the rainbow don’t go together’
At the beginning of this year, Belgian Under-23 cyclist Justin Laevens came out of the closet. He thought it was a big step himself because, he said "'I personally don't know anyone in the cycling world who has already come out.' Now, fortunately, something is moving...
Does Szájer’s outing take all of Hungary out of the closet?
There was some sniggering in the newspapers and on television last week. Very understandable by the way because it is not every week that you catch a homophobic Hungarian MEP at a gay sex party in Brussels. The fact that the party was organized by a Brussels native...
Weird
I love Ugly Belgian Houses. From the website and from the videos, although I must confess that I only discovered the latter during this lockdown on YouTube. On the website you see dozens of photos of 'ugly' Belgian houses: they are decorated with starfish or special...
Bruno De Lille: “Scholen die denken geen probleem te hebben met homofobie moeten misschien gewoon beter kijken”
door Timothy Junes © BeOut.be >> I apologize but this text is only available in Dutch. Bruno De Lille bepleit een open schoolklimaat voor LGBT-jongeren. De Lille was staatssecretaris voor Gelijke Kansen in het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest. Tegenwoordig is hij...
‘Schools that think they have no problem with homophobia may just need to look harder’
'Are you for the girls or for the boys?' I was in second or third grade when two girls on the playground walked up to me and asked me the question. From then on there was only before and after. The two girlfriends didn't realize it but they changed my life. In two...
‘EU must not tolerate hatred and violence against Polish LGBTI+ community’.
The Polish government uses the LGBTI+ movement as a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong. The president and his supporters want to turn all of Poland into an LGBT-free zone and the police are cracking down on the LGBTI community. "Let #PolishStonewall lead to...
Sick of staying home…
The redder an area’s colour on our government's corona lists, the more I feel like going there. You know that feeling? The forbidden fruit. I had never heard of the Severoiz tours in Bulgaria or Southern Muntenia in Romania, but ever since the Foreign Office...
Should the LGBTI+ community be afraid of ‘the new normal’?
COVID-19 still holds the world in its grip, and yet it’s good and perhaps even necessary to look ahead at the post-corona era. At ‘the new normal’, as it is also called. The LGBTI+ community in particular needs to prepare itself. There are people who see this health...
‘Focus on Moroccan origin for some offenders is not the solution for homophobic violence’.
“Relying on your gut feeling is not enough," Bruno De Lille writes. If we want to be a society where every LGBTI+ person can be open and feel safe, we have to fight macho behaviour and the entrenched patterns of thinking about ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’. I'm gay, so...
Save the Rainbow
Last Saturday I watched the Global Pride. Because most of the Pride parades had been cancelled, a virtual Global Pride was set up that showcased performances, movies and speeches by LGBTI+ activists from all over the world. A wonderful initiative that showed how it...
Happy with a seven
For the third year in a row, we have been ranked Europe’s second LGBTI+ friendliest country in terms of legislation. Let’s have a party!?! On the occasion of the International Day against Homo-, Bi-, Intersex- and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), ILGA Europe – the European...
Stuck in the closet
IDAHOT is just behind us, Pride month is coming. And traditionally, it’s high times for people who get off on LGBTI+ figures. We got a cartload of information in a few days. For example, the FRA, the independent documentation and knowledge centre for the promotion and...
Covid-19 affects Moroccan homosexuals in more than one way
A few days ago, the UN issued a global call to take into account the needs of the vulnerable LGBTI+group when tackling Covid-19. They did not even mention authoritarian leaders such as Viktor Orban using the pandemic to reduce LGBTI+ rights. The UN notes that...
Corona, forest fires and earthquakes: is the LGBTI+ community to blame?
The coronavirus is God's punishment for the Gay Pride. That's what the Israeli Rabbi Meir Mazuz claims anyway. His American colleague Reverend Steven Andrews goes a little further: with the corona pandemic, God is trying to purify the world of LGBTI+ communities. This...
Daniel Martinovic: “Today they’re coming for the LGBTI people, tomorrow it’s your turn.”
LGBTI-Croatia was recently in the news. At the end of February, an effigy of two gay men and their child was burned there. A few years ago, Croatia held a referendum to clearly define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. A referendum that was convincingly...
I’d hide my gay son in the basement
Shortly before schools started closing because of the coronavirus outbreak, students from a Brussels school visited the Rainbow House. And I had the pleasure of being there. A class full of 15-year-olds, excited because they didn't have to go to school, and at the...
Same-sex marriage leads to the end of mankind! Really?
Time to stop Orbán Fidesz, Viktor Orbán's party, may have been suspended as a member of the European People's Party, but that does not stop Orbán from expressing his opinion on the direction the EPP should take. A few days ago he published his 'Memorandum on the state...
Joyce Teng: “The fight was very uneven and yet I know I would go for it again.”
Since 24th May 2019, Taiwanese same-sex couples have had the right to get married. Taiwan is making history because it’s the first country in Asia where this has become possible. Taiwan is known as one of Asia’s most LGBTI+ friendly countries, and yet, the opening of...
A year of rainbow garlands and champagne
Last week it was party time in Northern Ireland. On January 13th, same-sex marriage finally became legal there. Throughout Facebook and Twitter you could see videos of LGBTI+ people counting down to midnight to hug, to kiss and to propose to each other. I watched...
Marian Lens: “We can change society, so let’s do it!”
Marian Lens is one of the LGBTI+ pioneers of Brussels. For years, she was the owner of the only feminist-lesbian bookstore Artemys, and worked hard for the creation of the Brussels Rainbowhouse. She is also the driving force behind the L-tours: walks that cover the...
Eliza Rutynowska: “The Polish populist government considers the LGBTI+ community as an ‘enemy of the state’ and treats them as such.”
The European Parliament recently (18/12/2019) adopted a resolution condemning discrimination and hate speech against LGBTI people. More specifically, it targeted the 'LGBT-free zones' that many Polish authorities have proclaimed. Belgian cities such as Ghent, Leuven...
Magda Aelvoet: “Introducing same-sex marriage has changed the lives of many people in a positive way. It’s nice if you can do that as a politician.”
A few weeks ago I was in Taipei (Taiwan) for a conference on same-sex marriages. I heard stories about legal battles, boycotts by opposition parties, demonstrations for and against... In Belgium, I myself took part in the campaign for 'gay marriage' (as most people...
Ed Davitt: “The Irish referendum for marriage equality was won door-to-door…”
Ed Davitt is an Irishman living in Belgium, whom I actually first met in Poland. It can't get much more international than that, can it? Ed has recently moved back to Brussels and works there for a Green MEP. He works a lot and is very passionate about it, but in his...
LGBTI-rights play an important role in the presidential election campaign in Taiwan
At the end of October, no fewer than two conferences were held in Taipei (Taiwan), at which a great deal of attention was paid to LGBTI-rights. The first was the worldwide FIDH-congress (Fédération Internationale pour les Droits Humains) that looked at the global...
Spiegels (Zizo)
Recent mocht ik deelnemen aan een LGBTI-conferentie in Taipei, Taiwan. De discussies en debatten op de conferentie waren interessant en toch ga ik daar niet over schrijven. Ik wil het wel met je hebben over de mensen die aan het evenement meededen want die waren...
Verliefd op vijf
Ik ben weg van Antoni, Tan, Karamo, Bobby en Jonathan. Als je nu denkt dat ik in een grote polyamoureuze relatie ben terechtgekomen, dan moet ik je helaas teleurstellen. Ik heb het over Queer Eye, een serie op Netflix waar vijf queer-mannen elke aflevering opnieuw bij...
Als stickers aanzetten tot haat, verdeeldheid en geweld (De Standaard)
Strefa wolna od LGBT ofwel ‘LGBT-vrije zone’. En dan een regenboogvlag met een groot zwart kruis erover. Dat staat op de stickers die de Gazeta Polska, een Pools conservatief weekblad, deze week verspreid heeft (DS 24 juli). Vrijheid van meningsuiting, noemen de...
‘Wie bekommerd is om vrijheid, moet accepteren dat we in respect kunnen samenleven zonder elkaars keuzes goed te keuren’
door Othman El Hammouchi © Knack.be In een reactie op een opiniestuk van Bruno De Lille pleit Othman El Hammouchi voor meer politie en strengere straffen om de vrijheid van alle burgers te waarborgen. De recente uitlatingen van Johan Leman in De Standaard hebben heel...
‘Op het Gemeenteplein roepen dat iedereen homo’s moet respecteren, zal niet volstaan’
door Tom Ysebaert © De Standaard INTERVIEW BRUNO DE LILLE, GROEN-POLITICUS EN HOMO IN BRUSSEL ‘Als homokoppel kun je hier misschien niet hand in hand over straat lopen.’ Of: ‘Als vrouwen in sommige buurten een korte rok dragen, zullen ze schunnige opmerkingen...
De omgekeerde wereld
door Ruben Mooijman © De Standaard De uitspraken die Johan Leman zaterdag in deze krant deed, wekten afgelopen weekend veel verontwaardiging. Politici, journalisten, opiniemakers en gewone burgers reageerden verbaasd en boos. Volgens Leman zouden homo’s en kortgerokte...
Lorin Parys roept ‘kortgerokte vrouwen en homo’s op om door Molenbeek te flaneren’
door KVDP © BRUZZ "Zullen we met kortgerokte vrouwen en alle homo's en lesbiennes afspreken om door Molenbeek te flaneren?" Met deze oproep reageert Vlaams Parlementslid voor N-VA Lorin Parys op ophefmakende uitspraken van Johan Leman. Ook Groen-parlementslid Bruno De...
‘Ik woon al 28 jaar in Brussel en de houding tegenover homoseksualiteit is nog nooit zo open geweest’ (Knack.be)
'We zijn terecht ongeduldig maar verlies niet uit het oog dat de mentaliteit bij heel veel Brusselaars, van welke herkomst dan ook, wel degelijk positief evolueert', schrijft Bruno De Lille over de acceptatie van homoseksualiteit in Brussel en Molenbeek. 'Laten we...
Bahri: ‘Het staat er echt. Ik moet maar verhuizen als homoseksueel uit Molenbeek’
door © BRUZZ VRT-reporter Riadh Bahri reageert scherp op de uitspraken van Foyer-voorzitter Johan Leman, waarin die had gesteld dat homo’s moeten weten op welke plaatsen ze hand in hand kunnen lopen en waar niet. “Het is definitief voorbij, de hoop die ik koester voor...
Je hebt wat geluk nodig om gelukkig te kunnen zijn (Zizo)
Wanneer zullen die holebi-activisten eens tevreden zijn? Ik hoor het steeds vaker. Door hetero’s rondom mij maar ook door sommige holebi’s. Zo vroeg Gunther Malin zich afgelopen weekend in De Morgen en op ZIZO af wanneer we zouden stoppen met altijd meer te willen....
Regenboogplan Groen heeft drie speerpunten: onderwijs, mentaal welzijn en Internationale Solidariteit
door Stijn Depoorter © Zizomag.be Op 22 maart presenteerde Groen haar Regenboogplan voor de Vlaamse, federale en Europese verkiezingen van 26 mei. De focus ligt daarbij op drie speerpunten: onderwijs, mentaal welzijn en internationale solidariteit. Hun doel...
Pédé (Zizo)
“Pédé”, siste de kassier van een grote elektro-supermarkt. “Pardon?” zei ik. De kassier schrok. Het was namelijk niet voor mij bedoeld maar voor de vorige klant. Die had de balpen van de kassier meegepikt en ‘verdiende’ het dus uitgescholden te worden. “Zijn het...
De kleine revolutie van de holebi-jongerengroepen (Zizo)
Onlangs vroeg iemand mij of ik een persoon buiten kon opnoemen zonder wie mijn leven totaal anders zou zijn geweest. Ik vond het een leuke uitdaging waar ik graag even over nadacht. Automatisch kwam ik eerst uit bij mijn man en onze zoon. Maar dat mocht niet. Die...
Laten we Lara de mond niet snoeren (Zizo)
In Brussel werd een vertoning van de Belgische film 'Girl' geschrapt na een boycot van een transvereniging. Zo stond het een week geleden in de krant. Dus ben ik de film maar eens gaan bekijken (ik hou er niet van als iemand me zegt wat ik wel of niet mag doen). En om...
Als we enkel een ideaalbeeld van onze gemeenschap willen tonen, sluiten we zelf heel veel mensen uit (Zizo-Online.be)
In Brussel werd de Regenboogstripmuur van Ralf König beklad. Een holebifobe aanval van mensen die vinden dat zo’n schildering niet in de hoofdstad thuishoort? Het is iets ingewikkelder want de aanval lijkt uit de LGBT-beweging zelf te komen. Op de stripmuur werden...
Bruno loves Simon (Zizo-Online.be)
Ik geef het toe, ik had op het einde van de film een serieuze krop in de keel. Ik weet het: het is een tienerfilm, het verhaal is voorspelbaar en er zit wellicht geen Oscar in voor Love, Simon. Toch kreeg ik een blij-ontroerd gevoel bij de romantische filmkomedie....
Mars tegen holebifobie in Schaarbeek op 2 juni
door © Zizo-online.be In Schaarbeek is een homokoppel maandag aangevallen door hun eigen onderburen. Als reactie organiseren de inwoners van de Brusselse gemeente op zaterdag 2 juni om 13 uur een mars om het geweld te veroordelen. Met de mars willen ze hun...
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