Statement by Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Everyone knows that homosexuals were arrested and sent to concentration camps by the Nazis, but it is less well known that after they were freed from the camps, many homosexuals were forced to serve out their terms of imprisonment. This may seem shocking, but it was consistent with the deeply rooted discrimination against homosexuals in Europe at that time. And it was also consistent with the discrimination against homosexuals in the decades which followed. It was not until 1990 that the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from their list of mental illnesses and, until a few years ago, homosexuality was still a criminal offence in several European countries.
Today, being a homosexual will no longer, at least not in a member state of the Council of Europe, result in being put in prison, but discrimination and homophobia still exist and not only on the margins of society. I condemn the homophobic violence perpetrated by skinheads, but it is heads of some political parties that I am really worried about. It is unacceptable that some people in positions of official or moral authority in Europe still behave as if the European Convention on Human Rights does not apply to homosexuals. People who discriminate often invoke morality to justify their attitude. They are making a relevant point, but they are getting it wrong. It is not the homosexuals who are immoral. It is the homophobes.