TIRANA, May 16 – Under the slogan “Courage”, gay and transgender activists pedaled in Tirana’s main boulevard last weekend against discrimination demanding equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Albania.
The Pride bicycle ride, the fifth of its kind held in Tirana, was organized by LGBT Alliance and ProLGBT, two organizations that promote gay rights in Albania.
Foreign diplomats and representatives from international organizations joined the ride, including Donald Lu, the U.S ambassador in Albania and Dewi van de Weerd, Netherlands ambassador to Albania.
The U.S ambassador described those who took part in the ride as ‘courageous’.
“I have the utmost respect for the brave people fighting for the rights of the LGBT community,” U.S ambassador Lu told reporters.
Organizers of the activity, however, slammed the absence of Albanian politicians in the event.
“As citizens of this country we are ashamed that no government representatives or Albanian politicians took part in the ride, but only our friends from the international community,” said Kristi Pinderi, LGBT rights activist.
“There are many people from our community who lack the courage to join the ride for fear of being discriminated against. Today we are pedaling for all those youngsters who get discriminated on a daily basis at schools, and for those LGBT people abused by their families because of their sexual orientation,” said Xheni Karaj, another LGBT activist.
The LGBT community is asking for amendments to the Family Code so that partners of the same sex can legally marry or cohabit. The amendments would pave the way to adoptions and inheritance rights for same sex couples.
However, religious communities in Albania are strictly opposed to the proposal saying that the traditional institution of the family would be greatly affected by the decision to allow same sex unions.
The Catholic Church in Albania expressed its staunch opposition towards same sex marriages by stating that it recognizes no other union beside that between a man and a woman.
After the Catholic Church, the Albanian Muslim Community has also expressed objections to legal amendments that would allow same sex couples to marry.
“A family is only one stemming from the union between a man and a woman and this constitutes one of the most fundamental pillars of our society. We don’t consider same sex marriages to be part of our tradition as a nation,” Albania’s Muslim Community said in a statement.
Opposition to allowing same sex unions has also been voiced from the ranks of Albanian politics.
Mesila Doda, representing the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity (PDIU) in Parliament said that she “refuses to vote another article which affects the core of our social system”.
Gay activists in Albania have become more vocal in recent years regarding the rights of the LGBT community insisting on the legalization of marriages or cohabitation for same sex couples.
Currently, a draft of constitutional amendments, which mainly focuses on the country’s judicial system, has added the phrase sexual orientation to the article 18/2 of the Constitution, which covers discrimination.
The inclusion of this phrase, in case the draft is adopted would practically render as unconstitutional article 7 of the Family Code in Albania, which considers marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman over eighteen.
Homosexuality has long been a taboo subject in Albania.
During Hoxha’s dictatorship, homosexuality was a criminal offence punishable with up to ten years of imprisonment.
It was decriminalized in 1995, and since 2010 it is illegal to discriminate solely on the basis of sexual orientation.
