TRANSGENDER EUROPE (TGEU)

Transgender Europe (TGEU) is a European network of trans and other organisations that support or work for the rights of transgender/transsexual/gender variant people, and like-minded individuals. The mission of TGEU is to support and strengthen the international trans movement and to be a powerful lobby and advocacy organisation for trans rights. TGEU was founded by the 120 participants of the First European Transgender Council in Vienna in 2005. The current chair and steering committee were elected during the Second European Transgender Council in 2008 in Berlin, in which more than 200 representatives from 38 countries participated. The Chair and steering committee are filled by nine activists based in six European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom).

TGEU consists of more than 80 individual and group members coming from 21 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom) and 4 non-European countries (Armenia, Canada, Kyrgyzstan, and the USA), and is legally registered as an NGO in Vienna, Austria.

Because TGEU believes that the acknowledgment and acceptance of gender diversity is an integral part of a modern European society, TGEU works for the empowerment, self-determination, and increasing visibility of all trans people.

Furthermore, TGEU works to ensure acknowledgement, respect, and equality for the identities of all trans people in Europe and for the gender diversity of the trans community, as well as the acknowledgement of and respect for trans people's human rights, including their legal equality as European citizens.

TGEU opposes the ongoing exoticization of trans people and the persistent pathologization of gender variance as a mental disorder, and works to combat the unlawful discrimination and unequal treatment experienced by trans people.

To achieve these goals, TGEU coordinated a European-wide protest campaign related to the extremely brutal transphobic murder of a trans person in Portugal in 2007, has supported the Transgender EuroStudy (a legal survey focusing on the transgender experience of health care) in 2008 as well as a study on “Transphobic Hate Crimes in the European Union.” TGEU has also organized the Second European Transgender Council in May 2008 in Berlin, as well as trans activist trainings in different parts of Europe (Manchester 2008, Budapest 2009), briefed the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe on trans-related human rights issues, and represents trans people and trans issues through speeches, workshops, panels and roundtables at international and national conferences. TGEU also carries out its own research, such as the “Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide” research project.

TGEU-Website: www.tgeu.org