Euopean Left LGTB- working group;

Dear comrades,

We, members of the Party of the European Left who are concerned with the issues
Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transsexuals, transgender and Intersexuals in their
parties, gathered In Berlin on January 14, 2012 and decided to reactivate and
reorganise the lgbt+ working group of the European Left.
We agreed to put into the focus of our future work the following:
Fight against discrimination, especially against the different civil rights of the
partnership institutions in the different countries (or the absence of such),
which is an obstacle to freedom of settlement in the EU. Support for the
already existing initiatives (ILGA etc.) in this direction.
Fight against homo- and transphobia, especially support for the lgbt
communities in countries with an extraordinarily homophobic society (including
support for prides etc.)

Fight for the human and civil rights of trans* persons.

“Inner party education”: deepening the knowledge about lgbt issues in the EL
and its member parties and strengthening the visibility of lgbt.
In this sense, the participants agreed on writing this open letter to all meber and
observer parties, asking them to support and encourage the work lgbt groups in their parties to establish trustful relations and an exchange of views with the lgbt
community to include lgbt issues in their programmatic work to fight all kinds of homo- and transphobia in the society of their countries and in Europe
to strive for a full equality of rights for all human beings, not regarding their
sexual orientation or gender identity.

To promote that, we would like ask all member and observer parties to encourage
existing lgbt structures to join the lgbt+ working group. If such structures do not exist we ask the parties to name a contact person, who will be responsible for lgbt issues in the respective party. The members of the EL lgbt+ working group are ready to support member and observer parties in the improvement of their work on lgbt
issues.

We are looking forward to your answer and to welcome comrades from all parties in
our working group.

Comradely,
The members of the EL lgbt+ working group