（雅思課外精讀）“LGBT彩虹之幕”正在將歐洲一分為二

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Charlemagne

查理大帝

Life beyond Europes rainbow curtain

超越彩虹之幕

For gay people, the continent is still divided

對于同性戀來說，歐洲大陸還是分裂的

1. IRELAND AND Lithuania have much in common. Both are small, Catholic, Europhile, enjoy a tricky relationship with a larger neighbour and have cuisines heavy on potatoes. Both also left it late when it came to gay rights. Homosexual acts were decriminalised only in 1993 in both countries. But since then, things have diverged. In the space of a generation, Ireland went from considering homosexuality a crime to allowing gay marriage and electing a gay taioseach with little fuss. Life for gay Lithuanians has been less happy. Laws banning gay propaganda are still on the books. Civil partnerships, let alone same-sex marriage, remain a pipe-dream. Merely living without fear would be an improvement: 84% of LGBT people in Lithuania are not comfortable revealing their identity.

愛爾蘭和立陶宛有很多共同之處。兩個國家都很小，都信奉天主教，都是親歐洲國家，而且兩個國家和鄰國的關(guān)系都很微妙，都是以土豆為主食。而在同性戀權(quán)力問題上，兩個國家都沒有那么激進。這兩個國家直到1993年才將同性戀行為合法化。但從那以后，情況發(fā)生了變化。在一代人的時間里，愛爾蘭同性戀得以合法化，甚至還選出了一位同性戀總統(tǒng)。而在立陶宛，同性戀群體的生活就不那么幸福了。禁止宣傳同性戀的法律仍然存在。民事伴侶關(guān)系，更不用說同性婚姻，仍然是遙遙無期。對于立陶宛同性戀群體來說，不再生活在恐懼之中就已經(jīng)是一種進步了：在立陶宛，84%的LGBT群體不愿意公開自己的同性戀身份。

2. Where an iron curtain once split Europe, a rainbow curtain now divides the continent. In western Europe, gay people enjoy a quality of life better than anywhere on the planet. They are free to marry and adopt children, and are protected from discrimination in all walks of life. Things in eastern Europe are not so good. In seven EU countries, including Poland, Hungary and Romania, less than half the population agree that gay people should have the same rights as straight ones. Civil partnerships are not offered in six EU countries, all in central and eastern Europe. Poland has introduced LGBT-free zones, a legally meaningless gimmick with the practical effect of declaring open season on gay people. Meanwhile, Hungary is working on a law that will ban gay couples from adopting. For gay people behind the Rainbow Curtainwhich covers about a quarter of the EUs populationlife can be grim.

過去，鐵幕把歐洲一分為二，如今，彩虹之幕也把歐洲一分為二了。在西歐，同性戀群體的生活比在其他任何地方都要好。他們可以自由結(jié)婚，領(lǐng)養(yǎng)孩子，而且在各行各業(yè)中也不會受到歧視。而在東歐，情況就沒這么好了。在包括波蘭、匈牙利和羅馬尼亞在內(nèi)的七個歐盟國家，只有不到一半的人認為同性戀者應(yīng)該享有和異性戀者一樣的平等權(quán)利。在中歐和東歐的六個歐盟國家都不允許民事伴侶關(guān)系。波蘭甚至設(shè)置了在法律上毫無意義的無同性戀區(qū)，這實際上不過是針對該群體自由評論的一個花招。與此同時，匈牙利正在制定一項法律，禁止同性戀夫婦收養(yǎng)孩子。對于占據(jù)歐盟四分之一人口同性戀者來說，生活是很艱難的。

3. For a continent that prides itself on gay rights, the split between west and east is a scar. After all, gay rights hold outsize importance in European life. Denmark was the first country to allow civil partnerships, and the Netherlands was the first to introduce gay marriage, in 2001, the same year that it allowed same-sex couples to adopt. In Brussels, gay rights are an area of diversity EU officials are comfortable talking about. When race is brought up officials wince, reminded of the almost preposterous lack of non-white faces within EU institutions. There are, however, plenty of gay people in the corridors of power. The Eurovision Song Contest, one of the few transcontinental events, is a festival of camp. (Although not for everyone: the year that Conchita Wurst, an Austrian drag act, won the event, Poland entered a decidedlyheteronormative act featuring buxom women seductively churning butter.)

歐洲大陸向來以其同性戀群體權(quán)利為榮，如今東西歐的分裂是一種創(chuàng)傷。畢竟，同性戀權(quán)利在歐洲人的生活中占有極其重要的地位。丹麥是第一個允許民事伴侶關(guān)系的國家，荷蘭是第一個同性婚姻合法化的國家。2001年，荷蘭允許同性伴侶收養(yǎng)孩子。在布魯塞爾，同性戀權(quán)利是歐盟官員津津樂道的多元化體現(xiàn)。一提起種族，官員們就會畏手畏腳，因為這讓人們意識到歐盟幾乎沒有白人面孔了。然而，在歐盟權(quán)力核心中，有很多同性戀。歐洲歌唱大賽是為數(shù)不多的跨越大陸的活動之一，是一個露營節(jié)日。(盡管這個節(jié)日不是面向所有人的：奧地利變裝演員：肯奇塔沃斯特贏得比賽那一年，波蘭舉行了一場典型的異性戀活動，活動中各種豐滿的女人在攪拌著黃油。)

4. Improved rights for gay people were a quid pro quo for membership when the EU expanded eastward from 2004. Romania, for instance, was forced to ditch its law against homosexuality before it was allowed to enter in 2007. With the prospect of EU membership looming over the political class, complaints were confined to bishops in the Romanian Orthodox church. (Sample quote: We want to enter Europe, not Sodom and Gomorrah.). Once they were in the club, however, this leverage disappeared and backsliding began. When Law and Justice, the governing right-wing conservative party from Poland, first came to power in 2005, one of its immediate actions was to scrap the government department responsible for LGBT policies. Things were so bad that Robert Biedron, a Polish MEP and one of the countrys few prominent LGBT figures, says he started learning Swedish in case he had to flee. Just as governments in Poland and Hungary have trampled over judicial independence and free media, so too have they cracked down on gay rights. Gay people in general are another victim of the EUs inability to ensure that countries maintain the standards that allowed them into the club in the first place.

2004年歐盟東擴時，改善同性戀者的權(quán)利是進入歐盟的條件之一。例如，羅馬尼亞在2007年獲準加入歐盟的時候，就被迫放棄了其反對同性戀的法律。歐盟政治階層中大多支持同性戀，對此的反對聲音來自羅馬尼亞東正教的主教們。(舉例來說:我們想進入的是歐盟，而不是圣經(jīng)里的罪惡之城。)然而，一旦他們加入歐盟，限制條件就沒有了，而他們也就開始打擊同性戀。波蘭的右翼保守黨法律與公正黨在2005年首次執(zhí)政時，直接廢除了負責LGBT政策的政府部門。波蘭議會議員羅伯特比德龍就覺得情況很糟糕，因此他開始學(xué)習(xí)瑞典語，以防萬一不得不逃離波蘭。就像波蘭和匈牙利政府踐踏司法獨立和媒體自由一樣，他們也鎮(zhèn)壓同性戀權(quán)利。一般來說，歐盟無力保證各國加入歐盟之后遵守其規(guī)則，而同性戀群體是歐盟無能的受害者。

5. Since family law is mainly up to member states, there is little the EU can do if a member state wants to stop a lesbian marrying or a gay couple adopting. Where Brussels can muscle in is when the right to free movement collides with bigoted domestic law. What happens if a gay couple and their child move to a country where such relationships are not recognised? The European Commission wants to smooth out these bumps, ensuring that the link between children and their gay parents is not severed if they move to a country where gay adoption is banned. While few are affected directly, such a move has potent symbolic power. Definitions of online hate speech will be widened to include homophobic abuse, too. Towns that introduced LGBT-free zones in Poland had EU funds cut. But the main thing the EU can offer is a pulpit,hammering those leaders who refuse to treat citizens equally.

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