LGBTQ+ and Luxembourg
My story of research and findings about a country that many people do not know about
Luxembourg. This has been around since 1815. It is important to note that since its establishment there have been a lot of improvements to better the lives of those who call this small country home. People might ask, why did I chose this country, or why did I chose it for this topic? The answer is that I am a citizen of this country. I have a proud Luxembourger heritage and educating people on this country makes me feel proud to be a Luxembourger.
When I was presented with this project I immediately thought about the county of Luxembourg. You might think that I knew a lot about the country but the truth is I did not know anything. I just knew where it is, and that for the first time in the country’s history they elected the first openly gay Prime Minister. His name is Xavier Bettel and he has not been elected twice to represent the country.
As you can tell many people might have heard about the country but the fact of the matter is pointing it out on a map is a little more difficult. Even when looking at the European map, you have to really squint your eyes to even see it. The star that points it out on the map is almost the size of the country itself. With a country that is the size of Ozaukee, Washington, Milwaukee, and Waukesha counties combined there are a lot of interesting facts that go along with what is happening there.
The overall total population of Luxembourg is around 500,000 people. That is the same population of Milwaukee County. Unlike in the United States where we have two main parties that dominate our government, Luxembourg has a total of six parties. If Brexit finally gets passed by the British Parliament, Luxembourg will become the banking capital of the European Union. The final fun fact that I like to point out to people is the fact that Luxembourg, due to its low corporate tax, houses headquarters for companies such as Amazon, Goodyear, and Skype.
Even with a total of six parties, there are really only three parties that I would like to focus on. The first party is the Democratic party. This party was founded in 1955 by Xavier Bettel. It is more of a center-right party which expressed more moderate liberal views. They emphasize human rights, internationalism, and civil liberties. The next party is the CSV or the Christian Social People’s Party. This party is also known as the Christian Democrats. The party is more of a conservative party. They were the majority party until 2013 when they went into “opposition.” Today they are getting the lowest support that they have ever since their creation. Finally, The Greens. The Greens were created in 1970 when many green parties were created across Europe. They advocated for environmentalism, social justice, and grassroots democracy. All this information does come into handy due to the fact some of these parties are not all in compliance with LGBTQ+ rights.
The four articles that I used were the following: The Defranza Article, Sumerau, Cragun, and Mathers, D’emelio, and Moslener. Each one of these articles ties a different synopsis that helps to explain the different tribulations that Luxembourgers have and are facing today. In the first article by Defranza, I talked about Intersex Rights. What I found out about Luxembourg is back in October of 2017 they passed Resolution 2191. It was titled, “Promoting Human Rights and eliminating discrimination against intersex people.” The national Minister of Education stated, “sex of infants born intersex should not be determined at birth, but that decision should be based on self-determination. The findings of the Defranza article titled Male, Female, Intersex in the Image of God state that, “more conservative Christians, those who hold to heterosexual monogamous ethics, have got to attend to the challenges intersex persons bring to their theologies and communities” (page 7). Another quote taken from the article has similarities to what was brought up in the law passed in Luxembourg which states, “intersex advocates are working to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries” (page 8). The major takeaway from the article is the conservative Christians and Evangelicals still have a problem with intersex people. I AM NOT saying all of them do, but their religion does. In Luxembourg, there was an uprising of conservative Christians that were angry with the passage of this law and they are still trying to oust the current Prime Minister because of his progressive agenda.
One of the items in his progressive agenda is to totally defund the church in 10 years. This plan would stop the government of Luxembourg from paying for people’s salaries in the church because the administration feels the church has contradicted itself for too long and they should be fully sustainable without the help of the government. Another interesting part of my findings was that last year Bill 7146 was passed in the parliament. The bill states, “the new legislation will make things easier for those who feel they have a different gender identity to their assigned gender. Luxembourg passed this and joined the rest of the European countries saying that you do not need to have SRS or Sex Reassignment Surgery to be able to change genders on any official government document.
The bill passed 57–3, with the Green Party voting nay on the basis that they do not believe in this. No other explanation was given from the Green Party. One article that was discussed in class that goes along with this would be the Sumerau, Cragun, and Mather article titled Contemporary Religion and the Cisgendering of Reality. One quote that I took from the article states, “Cisnormativity requires mechanism that mark transgender people and their experience as different, deficient, and marginal and or unnatural” (page 11). During the time the law was being passed Justice minister Felix Braz stated the following, “We as society are making them sick by not making it possible for them to have their own autonomy.”
When, as a society, we look at what Justice Minister Felix Braz said there is a lot of truth in his words. Society is making people sick. In the article it even shamed women for wearing pants. Society and religion go hand in hand because they are the ones that are behind trying to create cisnormativity as normal when in fact society is a dynamic, changing system that everyone should accept no matter what. Easier said than done I might add.
In the D’Emelio article titled The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, finds many different items were stated that related to what happened during the 19th century in the United States. The funny aspect is, the same thing was happening in Luxembourg. During the 19th century Luxembourg’s economy changed from agriculture or relying on the family, to a robust steel industry. Many families moved from the outskirts of the country to the city where the steel mills were located. During this time, Luxembourg’s largest export was steel and they created thousands of jobs because of this industrial change. In the article it states that, “Capitalism has created the material conditions for homosexual desires to express itself as a central component of some individuals’ lives” (page 474). As we discussed in class, there was a change from the nuclear family or the family unit to capitalism. This lead to freedoms for white gay men and white lesbians. The groups that is has left behind and created an even harder position for are Intersex and Transgender people of color. With mass incarceration largely a problem here in the US, Luxembourg decided to create new system that would not follow the United States. They believed that the system the US had was discriminatory towards minorities and oppressed people. Their system is still a system of justice, but much fairer to the people who are being prosecuted.
The final article that was used for research was the Moslener book titled, Virgin Nation. In Luxembourg the make-up of their population when it comes to religion is as follows: 67% Catholic, 14% Non-religious, 6% Atheist, 3% Protestant, 3% Muslim, 1% Buddhist, and 1% Orthodox Christian. In the Moslener book it stated, “Politics gave young Evangelicals new entrees into political life” (page 82). This is true, especially in Luxembourg due to the fact that religious people want to oust the Prime Minister on the basis of his agenda. They are trying to find ways to use religion to stop all the progress that has been made over the past several years. The article compared the new normal that was happening to the “apocalypse”(page 88).
All of these findings lead us to believe Luxembourg is a strong dynamic country. That aspect is true, but they still face so many different trials and tribulations in their future. The country has made a lot of progress but with new people trying to stop it, it can all be reversed once a new party is in control. The fact of the matter is even though Luxembourg, along with many other European nations is very progressive, there is still that facet of the population that does not like what is happening. This is why it is important for Luxembourg to continue down a path of progression rather than turn backwards.
Here is a video I created along with this project
I spent the day at the Luxembourg American Cultural Center learning more about Luxembourg and its diverse history.
