To mark the international day against homophobia day on 17 May Brussels has organised a conference and demonstration to campaign against homo-, lesbo-, bio- and trans-phobia. The demonstration in Brussels is planned from city hall to the Saint-Jacques quarter, one of the main centres of the gay community in the city.
On 12 May about 50,000 attended a Gay Pride march in Brussels, which paid tribute to the first victim of a homophobic killing in Belgium, a man who was punched to death in Liege. The demonstrators handed petitions to the prime minister (Belgium’s first openly gay prime minister) and to the justice and equal opportunity ministers, asking for a programme to tackle homophobic hate crimes.
