Configuring human rights at EuroPride 2015

Abstract

Events, predominantly sport mega-events, have received an abundance of academic scrutiny. Some of these commentaries have critiqued how the staging of mega-events can violate a range of universal human rights. Far less is available that is concerned with how events are mobilised for human rights advocacy. This paper, drawing from an ongoing qualitative research project (Baltic Pride 2015–2017), focuses on the venacularisation of human rights to offer a view of the intricacies of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activism at the level of the local. Discussion starts with an appraisal of existing universal human rights policies surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), specifically United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) legislative frameworks. This legislative premise is followed by a focus on vernacularisation; a concept that reveals the complicated processes of human rights claiming. A brief history of Baltic Pride provides the context for EuroPride 2015 as well as the subsequent analyses of research findings, which are explored through the themes: EuroPride 2015 Pride House and EUroPride’s Super VIPs. Methodologically, the research relies on a combination of ethnography and autoethnogarphy, and findings are embedded within the critical analyses. Photographs, field notes that are more akin to autoethnographic narrative and commentary from the interview participants help highlight the conceptual value of vernacularisation to research on human rights.

Keywords:

• LGBT
• Human Rights
• Euro Pride 2015
• Baltic Pride
• vernacularisation

Notes

1. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) raised concerns in 2003 and began the project of documenting UN references to violations experienced by LGBT individuals. It issued its first UN compilation in 2005.

2. Entitled: Discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

3. Established in 1978 and gained access to EU in the 1990s, specifically the European Parliament and European Commission.

4. Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.

5. Council of Europe (2011) Combating Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity.

6. She acknowledges that these agents have cultural capital; they are often from the middle-classes.

7. Murray (2006) borrows this term from Chambers (2003) and his concept of ‘Ghostly Rights’. I use it here to refer to Pat’s sometimes-wafted sheets of paper.

8. The 2014 release of the film Pride, which is about the 1984 London Pride parade, provides a popular cultural representation of the ethos that Pride intends to evoke.

9. For an account of the religious and political opposition to Rīga Prides 2005–2009 see: Homo@lv available online at: https://vimeo.com/38177969.

10. In recent years Mozaīka has delivered formal anti-homophobia training/workshops to police personal.

11. Related to ethical considerations, a University of Sussex Ethical Review was completed and authorised, it highlighted my adherence to fundamental ethical matters such as consent, anonymity (use of psydonyms) & confidentiality.

12. Pride House International at Vancouver winter Olympics 2010, London summer Olympics 2012 and Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014.

13. The flag was at the top of internet/phone aerial. It was a small flag, but it did remain in place.

14. For me, this means ‘hippy’, ‘new age’, ‘arty’. Other examples include the food that was served at PH was vegetarian only and one regular brought his two children, they all arrived on skateboards. The two children played inside and outside PH and several other adults looked after/engaged with them.

15. For me, this means, for example, being introduced to a same-sex partner as ‘my husband’, observing female masculinity and male femininity (including ‘camp’), and seeing T-shirts that declared transgender.

16. Note: EuroPride was awarded in 2012.

17. Article 20.1 Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.