（雅思课外精读）“LGBT彩虹之幕”正在将欧洲一分为二

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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

对于同性恋来说，欧洲大陆还是分裂的

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.

爱尔兰和立陶宛有很多共同之处。两个国家都很小，都信奉天主教，都是亲欧洲国家，而且两个国家和邻国的关系都很微妙，都是以土豆为主食。而在同性恋权力问题上，两个国家都没有那么激进。这两个国家直到1993年才将同性恋行为合法化。但从那以后，情况发生了变化。在一代人的时间里，爱尔兰同性恋得以合法化，甚至还选出了一位同性恋总统。而在立陶宛，同性恋群体的生活就不那么幸福了。禁止宣传同性恋的法律仍然存在。民事伴侣关系，更不用说同性婚姻，仍然是遥遥无期。对于立陶宛同性恋群体来说，不再生活在恐惧之中就已经是一种进步了：在立陶宛，84%的LGBT群体不愿意公开自己的同性恋身份。

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.

过去，铁幕把欧洲一分为二，如今，彩虹之幕也把欧洲一分为二了。在西欧，同性恋群体的生活比在其他任何地方都要好。他们可以自由结婚，领养孩子，而且在各行各业中也不会受到歧视。而在东欧，情况就没这么好了。在包括波兰、匈牙利和罗马尼亚在内的七个欧盟国家，只有不到一半的人认为同性恋者应该享有和异性恋者一样的平等权利。在中欧和东欧的六个欧盟国家都不允许民事伴侣关系。波兰甚至设置了在法律上毫无意义的无同性恋区，这实际上不过是针对该群体自由评论的一个花招。与此同时，匈牙利正在制定一项法律，禁止同性恋夫妇收养孩子。对于占据欧盟四分之一人口同性恋者来说，生活是很艰难的。

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.)

欧洲大陆向来以其同性恋群体权利为荣，如今东西欧的分裂是一种创伤。毕竟，同性恋权利在欧洲人的生活中占有极其重要的地位。丹麦是第一个允许民事伴侣关系的国家，荷兰是第一个同性婚姻合法化的国家。2001年，荷兰允许同性伴侣收养孩子。在布鲁塞尔，同性恋权利是欧盟官员津津乐道的多元化体现。一提起种族，官员们就会畏手畏脚，因为这让人们意识到欧盟几乎没有白人面孔了。然而，在欧盟权力核心中，有很多同性恋。欧洲歌唱大赛是为数不多的跨越大陆的活动之一，是一个露营节日。(尽管这个节日不是面向所有人的：奥地利变装演员：肯奇塔沃斯特赢得比赛那一年，波兰举行了一场典型的异性恋活动，活动中各种丰满的女人在搅拌着黄油。)

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年欧盟东扩时，改善同性恋者的权利是进入欧盟的条件之一。例如，罗马尼亚在2007年获准加入欧盟的时候，就被迫放弃了其反对同性恋的法律。欧盟政治阶层中大多支持同性恋，对此的反对声音来自罗马尼亚东正教的主教们。(举例来说:我们想进入的是欧盟，而不是圣经里的罪恶之城。)然而，一旦他们加入欧盟，限制条件就没有了，而他们也就开始打击同性恋。波兰的右翼保守党法律与公正党在2005年首次执政时，直接废除了负责LGBT政策的政府部门。波兰议会议员罗伯特比德龙就觉得情况很糟糕，因此他开始学习瑞典语，以防万一不得不逃离波兰。就像波兰和匈牙利政府践踏司法独立和媒体自由一样，他们也镇压同性恋权利。一般来说，欧盟无力保证各国加入欧盟之后遵守其规则，而同性恋群体是欧盟无能的受害者。

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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