In the almost 14 years since Evelyne Paradis became the Executive Director of ILGA-Europe it has grown to become the largest umbrella organisation for LGBTI activism in Europe and Central Asia, playing a key and essential role in resourcing and fostering the LGBTI movement, and influencing political systems towards ever greater consideration of LGBTI people’s equality, freedom and safety in decision making and legislation. The past two years in particular have been a time of unprecedented expansion for ILGA-Europe, both in terms of staff and funding, and in our capacity to support, represent and help build a strong and strategic LGBTI movement in the region.     In this episode of The Frontline, as Evelyne Paradis hands over the reins of leadership to our new Executive Director, Chaber, we sit down with them both to talk about how ILGA-Europe has evolved as an organisation alongside the LGBTI movement over the past decades, and what’s just around the corner, both for the organisation and for the queer activist movement.    Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

For the past 18 years with ILGA-Europe, 15 of which she spent as the organisation’s Executive Director, Evelyne Paradis has worked closely alongside hundreds of LGBTI activists and organisations across Europe and Central Asia. As she gets ready to hand over the reins to our new Executive Director, in this episode of The Frontline, Evelyne talks about how the LGBTI movement in Europe and Central Asia has evolved over her time leading ILGA-Europe, and how ILGA-Europe’s work to build and enhance the movement has evolved and grown too.  What have been the rising priorities in queer activism, and how has ILGA-Europe been both supporting and helping lead the charge? What have been the pitfalls along the way and what are the challenges ahead? And as LGBTI communities and activists face growing opposition from powerful right wing forces across the region, how can the movement further harness is own power to push forward?   Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

This is the first of three interviews with ILGA-Europe’s Executive Director, Evelyne Paradis as she departs the organisation, after 18 years, nearly 14 of which she spent as its leader. With a decade and half of experience leading Europe’s largest LGBTI umbrella organisation, which is a driving force for political, legal and social change in Europe and Central Asia, Evelyne has had a helicopter view of the growing place of LGBTI rights on political agendas and how all of this has filtered down in the everyday lives of LGBTI people across the regions.   In this episode, Evelyne talks about how politics have evolved over her time leading ILGA-Europe, which included the dawn and global spreading of social media, and how Europe’s political institutions have progressed to include LGBTI people across a broad range of portfolios and initiatives. Is the current EU political system working well to shore up and promote LGBTI equality, or are rainbow rights a victim to an advancing populism across the political spectrum? And what does it take to be a great politician at this time in the world? All these questions and more are answered in this, the first of the Evelyne Paradis exit interviews for The Frontline.   Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Every year since 2009, ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map has been ranking the 49 countries that make up Europe based on the legal and policy situations of LGBTI people.  While during this time there has been much movement at the top of the map, with Spain, Finland, Greece and Moldova making big jumps this year, the countries at the bottom have largely been the same since the very first map, namely Russia, Armenia, Turkey, and at the very bottom Azerbaijan. In this episode of The Frontline, we ask the question, if a country stays at the bottom of the Rainbow Map ranking, does it mean there's no queer activism happening there? In countries where advocacy is not possible, and where daily life for LGBTI people is often extremely challenging, what's happening in the work towards LGBTI rights and equality? And is this mostly invisible activism bringing about change for LGBTI people in the countries where it seems life is getting worse rather than better?  Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Released every May since 2009, the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map ranks the legal and policy situation for LGBTI people in all 49 European countries, on a scale between 0% (gross violations of human rights, discrimination) and 100% (respect of human rights, full equality).   This year there was much movement on the map, with Malta holding the top spot and several countries entering the top ten. All of this has been reported across the world, but what truths lie behind the Rainbow Map rankings? Malta has been number one for eight years now, but is it a utopia for LGBTI people, or are there issues in the country that might be pinkwashed by its Rainbow ranking? Are small movements up the chart really representative of what’s happening on the ground for LGBTI people? And what’s happening in the countries that used to be at the top but are now lagging very much behind?  In this episode of The Frontline, exploring the complexities behind the rankings in the annual Rainbow Map, we are joined by guests Robert Attard from the Malta Gay Rights Movement (https://maltagayrights.org/), Simona Mursec from Ljubljana Pride Association (https://ljubljanapride.org/en/) in Slovenia and Sophie Schers from Transgender Network (https://www.transgendernetwerk.nl/) in The Netherlands. We’re also joined by Mehmet Akin from the ILGA Europe team, who oversees the collection of data and rankings on the Rainbow Map and Index, and our Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel, to talk about what we see happening now and in the future.   Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

All too often we hearabout exclusionary forces, or the voices of forces who seek to exclude trans women from the women’s movement, but does this adequately represent the truth? This episode focuses on the ways in which actors in the women’s movement are actively inclusive of trans women, questions the exclusionary narrative that dominates much of the media, and how this dominant narrative is both being driven by and playing into the hands of anti-democratic forces.    We ask what it means for feminism to be inclusive in practical terms and how does inclusiveness impact the work? We explore how inclusionary women’s rights organisations and trans activists are responding to the efforts of exclusionary actors to narrow the frame for feminism, and the lessons learned so far.  With us to investigate the exclusionary narrative and look at it from the more prevalent inclusionary perspective, are Caroline Hickson, Regional Director of International Planned Parenthood Federation (https://europe.ippf.org/) European Network; Tanya von Knorring, Executive Director of  Transfeminiinit, Finland (https://transfeminiinit.fi/wordpress/) and Federal Vice Chair of National LGBTI Finland; and Marion Böker from the German NGO, Deutsche Frauenring (https://deutscher-frauenring.de/), who is also on the board of the International Alliance of Women and the European Women’s Lobby.   Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The big story at the beginning of the World Cup 2022 centred on FIFA banning all players on European teams from wearing the ‘One Love’ armband during matches, highlighting the dire human rights situation for LGBTI people in Qatar.     But what happens when divisions over LGBTI issues become the leading stories surrounding a major sporting event like the World Cup? Do these stories serve the LGBTI communities in countries where people are at risk? Do they serve the greater goals of the LGBTI movement for equality? Or is the focus on LGBTI people and LGBTI issues not creating a Rainbow Divide, in which the human rights of one group are separated from the human rights of all?      This episode of The Frontline will explore the complexities around singling out of LGBTI rights at the Qatar World Cup, when so many other human rights abuses are taking place in the country, if it further fuelled an ‘us and them’ human rights narrative, and what responsibility lies with the media in the reporting of this and other LGBTI centred stories.     Our guests are Ryan Heath (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangheath/), Editorial Director with Politico (https://www.politico.eu/); Gurchaten Sandhu (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurchaten-sandhu-63a3696/), Director of Programmes at ILGA World (https://ilga.org/), and the Executive Director of ILGA-Europe (https://www.ilga-europe.org/), Evelyne Paradis.       Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

-part episode we’re looking at the new wave of accession to the EU and what it will mean for LGBTI people. With the recent news that Ukraine and Moldova are now candidates to the EU, the topic of EU accession is on the radar again, while Western Balkan countries such as Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro have been going through the process for some years now, and Turkey not acceded since its application in 1987.  With the current state of LGBTI rights in Central Europe, highlighted most recently by the Serbian government’s anti-democratic instrumentalising of LGBTI people in an effort to try to stop EuroPride in Belgrade, how does this kind of backsliding play into the accession process? And what about countries like Ukraine, where LGBTI rights have barely been on the governmental agenda? What are the opportunities to be gained by candidacy for joining the EU?  To discuss these questions and more, we're joined by former member of European Parliament, Marije Cornelissen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marije_Cornelissen), who has worked e xtensively on the accession process; Lenny Emson from Kyiv Pride (https://kyivpride.org/en/) in Ukraine; Anastasia Danilova from GENDERDOC-M (https://gdm.md/en/home-eng-test/) in Moldova; and Danijel Kalezić, who worked for years as the Executive Director of Queer Montenegro (https://lnk.bio/queermne) , but has now become the Co-director of ERA (https://www.lgbti-era.org/danijel-kalezi%C4%87), the LGBTI Equal  Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Turkey. We’re also joined ILGA-Europe's Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel to talk about our deep and long-term experience of working on accession countries, which has been happening for 25 years now.   Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In the second of our two-part episode, looking at the new wave of accession to the EU and what it will mean for LGBTI people, we're looking at how ILGA-Europe uses the accession process in our advocacy work in Brussels, and we talk about the Serbian government’s anti-democratic instrumentalising of LGBTI people in an effort to try to stop EuroPride in Belgrade this September, and what it means for LGBTI people in that candidate country. We're joined by former member of European Parliament, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marije_CornelissenMarije Cornelissen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marije_Cornelissen) , who has worked extensively on the accession process; Lenny Emson from Kyiv Pride (https://kyivpride.org/en/) in Ukraine; Anastasia Danilova from GENDERDOC-M (https://gdm.md/en/home-eng-test/) in Moldova; and Danijel Kalezić, who worked for years as the Executive Director of Queer Montenegro (https://lnk.bio/queermne) , but has now become the Co-director of ERA (https://www.lgbti-era.org/danijel-kalezi%C4%87), the LGBTI Equal  Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Turkey. We’re also joined ILGA-Europe's Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel to talk about our deep and long-term experience of working on accession countries, which has been happening for 25 years now.   Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In this, the second episode of our new mini-series exploring the opportunities and challenges that come with businesses supporting LGBTI equality, ()we’re taking a closer look at how business can support LGBTI civil society. With us to talk about how to build partnerships with business in contexts and countries requiring different responses, from advocacy to campaigns, are Nancy Kelley, the Chief Executive of Stonewall (https://www.stonewall.org.uk/), which has long experience working with private business both in the UK and internationally and ()Noah Kraljević, from the ILGA-Europe member organisation, Expanse of Gender and Media Culture ‘Common Zone (https://voxfeminae.net/)’, who has led on LGBTI inclusion in the workplace in Croatia and joins us to talk about engagement with the private sector in the country.    Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.