Belgium's State Secretary for Equal Opportunities, Sarah Schlitz, is making €300,000 available for an exhibition and two studies, one of which will focus specifically on the anti-gender movement, on the occasion of LGBTQI+ month.
LGBTQI+ month, celebrated each year in October, focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or asexual people, their stories, their struggle for equal rights, and movements that defend their civil rights.
About 10% of the funds released, €30,000, will go towards a study around the anti-gender movement, whose influence is growing in Europe, whether in Sweden, Poland, Hungary or Italy, the State Secretary said.
It is a very structured and organised movement that want to roll back equality, for example by curbing the right to abortion, thus also the rights of LGBTQI+ people.
Schlitz therefore wants to obtain a clear view of how these movements stand in Belgium and what their sources of income are, in order to build a dam against their ideology.
The other study covers the history of lesbian movements in Belgium.
Additionally, Schlitz is supporting the exhibition on gays and lesbians during World War II, to be held in Spring next year at the Dossin Barracks in Mechelen.
