The best of Europe for women and LGBTQIA+ people project

The “Most Favoured European Woman and LGBTQIA+ people Clause” was launched in 2005 by the association Choisir la cause des femmes, inspired by an idea from the French feminist, anti-colonialist and antiracist lawyer Gisèle Halimi.

The principle is simple: after comparing women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights across all European Union member states, the most progressive and favorable provisions are selected and applied to everyone living in the Union, whether citizens or migrants, creating a legislative framework built on the best protections for women and LGBTQIA+ people found anywhere in the Union.

This approach is intersectional. It recognizes that sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, class inequality and other forms of discrimination overlap and reinforce one another, so that women and LGBTQIA+ people do not experience their rights in the same way depending on their origin, skin color, social background or migration status. Fighting racism is therefore inseparable from defending the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ people: a right that is not guaranteed to everyone, including racialized and migrant women and queer people, is a privilege, not a right.

The Permanent Secretariat for a Queer intersectional Feminist Europe is a coalition of organizations and activists committed to enforce the Best of Europe for Women and LGBTQIA+ people which is a European project you can learn all about on : (insert website). Our common struggle is carried out in a context where our rights are on constant and organized attack by the far-rights and all those who compromise with its ideology. That’s why this coalition has common core values and characteristics that we deem essential to share for anyone aspiring to join it.

We are intersectional which means that our project and approach recognizes that different factors of discrimination intersect to create complex systems of oppression. We are committed to fighting them all : gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, race, religious beliefs, social class, migrant status, disability. As a feminist coalition, it is inherent to our commitment to stand in solidarity and fight with LGBTQIA+ people (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual) in defense of all of our rights. That means that discrimination against trans, non-binary, gender fluid, intersex and queer in general people is an absolute redline to join the coalition.