16
March
2016

Professionally speaking: challenges to achieving equality for LGBT people

The fundamental rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are often not respected across the EU. Public officials and other professionals in education, healthcare and law enforcement are entrusted with the duty to ensure that everyone’s fundamental rights are protected and promoted.

This report examines the drivers and barriers encountered by such frontline officers when doing their work. Drawing on extensive interviews with public officials, teachers, doctors, nurses and law enforcement officers in 19 EU Member States, it analyses their views and experiences, identifying persisting hurdles – such as perceptions of homosexuality as a pathological condition – and encouraging trends – including considerable commitment to improve the situation. In this way, this report provides new evidence on an under-researched topic, namely the efforts of public officials and other professionals in education, healthcare and law enforcement to fulfil the rights of LGBT people.