Government shall compensate lgbt people convicted during the communist regime!

PINK Embassy / LGBT Pro Albania learned today about the new amendments proposed by the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth for the Law on Compensation of Ex Political Prisoners, which very soon will go to the Albanian Parliament for approval.

Meanwhile the proposed changes are commendable because they have been consulted largely with other former political prisoner in Albania and positively discriminating by giving priority to the compensations of groups such as women and other categories, it leaves out, those former prisoners, who have been convicted by the communist regime because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

LGBT people have suffered oppression from the communist regime, which reserved to them some of the harshest treatments. During years of work, PINK Embassy has learned the stories of many LGBT people, especially gay men, who have been convicted unfairly, according to the Criminal Code of the time, simply because of their sexual orientation.

The stories of LGBT people convicted and persecuted during the communist regime deserve to be heard, recognized and its victims deserve all the respect, protection and recognition of the Albanian state and society. Regardless of the number of people convicted the inhuman treatment that many Albanian people have suffered, during the years 1945-1990, were also related to sexual orientation and gender identity. Even today, these people wait to tell their stories, and maybe they will never have the chance to do so if society does not give them the possibility to do so.

PINK Embassy believes that this is the right moment, that alongside with the groups that will be supported by the law, part of it shall become also all the LGBT people who were imprisoned because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. We also suggest to the Ministry of Social Welfare needs to make an assessment of the number of persons convicted due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

It is more than clear that the consequences suffered from the LGBT people under communism are as dramatic and severe as those of many other individuals. The review of the law also in this aspect will make justice for those people who paid more dearly and harshly than anyone else the right to love a person of the same gender.