Research Cluster on LGBTQI+ Human Rights

Europe at a Crossroads

By Maximillian Calleo

Three men sit at a table with microphones in front of a projected map of Europe, at a Weatherhead Center for International Affairs event at Harvard University. — On October 20, Weatherhead cosponsored the event “Europe at a Crossroads: The Future of LGBTQI+ Rights,” featuring, left to right: Research Cluster Chair Timothy Patrick McCarthy, former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland Leo Varadkar, and Program Director Diego Garcia Bloom. Credit: Lauren McLaughlin

On October 20, the collaboration between the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs was launched with the first official event: “Europe at a Crossroads: The Future of LGBTQI+ Rights.” The new Weatherhead Center Research Cluster on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights explores issues related to the precarity of LGBTQI+ human rights, which have proven to be fodder for authoritarian projects globally. This attack is part of a coordinated transnational effort to inject political polarization and division in societies to weaken the democratic fabric, expanding illiberal influences worldwide.

In line with the mission of the cluster, the event featured Leo Varadkar, who is the former prime minister of Ireland and one of the world’s first openly gay government leaders, as its keynote speaker. With a discussion moderated by Timothy Patrick McCarthy, cochair of the research cluster, and Diego Garcia Bloom, director of the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Carr-Ryan Center, the event centered on the critical current moment, which is a pivotal one for Europe, with various EU member states experiencing evolving LGBTQI+ rights landscapes as well as widespread challenges seeking to undermine equality and inclusion in an era characterized by political polarization.

With these challenges in mind, the panel explored how the EU can maintain and embrace its founding principles of dignity, freedom, and justice, while fighting the mounting backlash and vitriol aimed at LGBTQI+ communities. Varadkar sought to highlight both the progress achieved while expressing a pressing need for solidarity and action in the European Union. In sum, the discussants focused on the dual responsibility that currently faces the EU: it must respect the diversity of political realities that is representative of its member states while simultaneously guaranteeing that equality and human rights remain a nonnegotiable aspect of its social and political landscape.