How Friendly the Czech Republic is Towards LGBT Rights

The Czech Republic, the Central European country is the most liberal European country regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT+) rights according to CEE New Perspectives. For example, it was the first post-communist nation to legalize same-sex registered partnerships from other European nations.

It has been discovered that there is an increased level of support in terms of same-sex marriage in the Czech Republic. A 2013 Pew Research Center survey demonstrated that 80% of Czechs think that homosexuality ought to be acknowledged by society, one of the most top among the 39 nations surveyed. Prague, the capital city of the country is well known globally for its LGBT nightlife and transparency. The reason why homosexual people prefer to move to Prague than any other place in the country is that some of them are still a bit of scared to come out as a homosexual with the fear of dreading results as revealed by the surveys recently conducted by the Czech Academy of Sciences (find here in Czech). If you want to know in details about LGBT rights in the Czech Republic 

LGBT
LGBT flag in Prague. Source: expats.cz

There is a Prague Pride, non-governmental, non-political, non-profit organization. It aims are mainly to promote tolerant civil society, fight against homophobia and increase public awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the Czech Republic. The organization was founded in 2010 with the aim to organize an LGBT human rights festival – Prague Pride. 

In the Czech Republic, there is a legitimate acknowledgment of same-sex couples. From 2001, the Czech Republic has granted “persons living in a common household” inheritance and progression rights in housing, also a hospital and prison visitation rights like wedded hetero couples. Although same-sex couples are currently can not legally adopt in the Czech Republic and singles and lesbian couples do not have access to IVF treatments in the country.

How Friendly the Czech Republic is Towards LGBT Rights
source: Raymond Johnston

In 2009, in the Czech Republic, a complete list anti-discrimination law was passed which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, education, housing and access to goods and services. Section 2 of the Anti-Discrimination Act (Czech: Antidiskriminační zákon) defines “direct discrimination” as follows: 

Direct discrimination shall mean an act, including omission, where one person is treated less favorably than another is, has been or would be treated in a comparable situation, on grounds of race, ethnic origin, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, belief or opinions.

The first sex reassignment surgery in the country took place in 1942 when a transgender man subsequently changed his legal sex to male. Currently, 50-60 people undergo such surgeries annually in the country. Also in 2011 Prague’s first gay & lesbian pride festival happened. It was the latest salvo in the escalating war of words among Czech politicians over the event. Find some useful articles here

 

Interviews with gay expats in the Czech Republic

We talked to two gay couples living in Brno, to get to know more about the current situation. 

A couple originally from Israel, Nimrod and Ronen are together from the last 10 years and got married in the last September in Copenhagen. They could not get married in Israel because of law and order, although they had the biggest LGBT community of Israel in Tel Aviv. They met when Nimrod was working in a coffee shop in Tel Aviv. Ronen was his customer and then as Nimrod said, from one cup of coffee it led to another and then they finally start dating. 

Later on, they left their jobs in Israel and moved to Poland. However, Poland didn’t have any good news for them, as they couldn’t get married. Soon after a little research, they found out the Czech Republic accepts a same-sex couple, and so they moved the next day. 

Nimrod and Ronen find the Czech Republic and Czech people mostly tolerant and accepting. Also, they have not and I hope for future too, encounter any discrimination, moreover when they went for an interview in MOI, they found people there very lovely and accepting. 

They also told us that ever since they have moved to Brno they have not witnessed any community or any pride parade, although in the capital city (Prague) there is quite a big community.

Another couple, Yan David Vargas and his husband, are from Canada. They live in the Czech Republic for more than 3 years now. They are together for 18 years while married for the last 16 years. When David’s husband came to the Czech Republic to work, he also applied for a work visa. He had to wait for a year to be able to get a working visa. As he claims, the visa process was very confusing, annoying and at times, very depressing. In their opinion, the LGBT community is very hard to access for a non-Czech person. It is often hard to meet and to make friendships with other gay people around and once a Czech gay people find a partner they tend to hide away from other gays. 

 

Where to meet the community?

David also informed us that there are sporadic meetings organized by STUD group. There is also a gay film festival called Mezipatra that plays movies in both cities (Prague and Brno). It is organized independently so the dates between the two cities do not overlap. It attracts a lot of people, gay and not. There is also a gay ball every February and it works similarly to the Mezipatra festival. Moreover, there is a boat party by the Brno reservoir and other activities. Lastly, David mentioned some groups that go for swimming, cycling, and hiking. In any case, to socialize in any of these activities or groups, you need to be fluent in Czech as many of the participants and organizers do not speak (or do not want to speak) English. 

David and his better half have not encountered any discrimination or any issues but he said he wouldn’t feel that confident to walking hand on hand on the streets. He has seen a few people doing it, especially women and no one on the streets gives them too much attention. I wear my rainbow bracelet wherever I go but no one pays attention to it. I wonder whether or not people know the meaning of it. There are very few places in Brno for gay people and one of them is often more frequented by straight people. I tried to be amicable to a person in there once and he warned me not to touch him as he “is not gay.” I was baffled by his reaction to a simple talk that I just walked away in shame in a place that it is supposed to be open for people like me. After that incident, I gave up in going to gay bars and similar places like that. 

This year, for the first time, the LGBT+ flag was flying in the city of Prague on the occasion of the ninth edition of the LGBT+ festival in the Czech capital. The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in a city-wide parade took place on Saturday, August 10, 2019. The parade attracted approximately 30,000 participants. It was led by two cars with grand marshals: actor Jiří Hromada, politician Karla Šlechtová (ANO) and Roma activist David Tišer. IT firms Google and Microsoft had floats. Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib and Czech Pirate Party leader Ivan Bartoš also participated with afloat. Nevertheless, in the evening someone put the flag on fire (very shameful in my opinion!). The police still try to find the person.

Supriya Joon

Hello readers, welcome to Foreigners blog. I am Supriya Joon, an expat living in the Czech Republic, I love traveling around the globe, so here I am sharing useful information about the Czech Republic. Hopefully, you like my articles!

15 thoughts on “How Friendly the Czech Republic is Towards LGBT Rights

  1. Hello, looking for health insurance so my wife and I can move to Brno or looking for part time job that will provide health insurance. So far can’t afford to get it through US companies. Thank you for any advice you have to offer. Kindly, Marie Maher & Linda Exelbierd

    1. Hello Marie and Linda,

      we wrote some articles about health insurance on this blog or you can check this link if you think you might use some help with getting the health insurance. As for job searching: your best chance of finding a job is via websites like jobs.cz or indeed.com. If you have any other questions or need assistance, feel free to get in touch with my colleagues at info@foreigners.cz – they’ll get to you with more details as soon as possible and help you and your wife on your journey 🙂

      Kind regards, and see you in Brno!

      Anna

  2. I’m from the US and attended pride in Prague (2018). It was one of the best experience ever. The people there were so kind and genuine. I loved that I witnessed families gathered together to support the lgbtq community. I spoke to a lot of the people there and they all had the same sentiments. They’ve seen so much war, why discriminate and hate people for their differences, it’s not what they wanted to teach their kids. And I loved their responses. And I didn’t see one single protester. I would definitely visit Czech Rep again. Hell, if I could move there that be amazing. They’re so much more progressive than most US cities. Thank you to the amazing locals of Prague that welcomed me with an abundance of love. You guys are such strong and inspiring people.

  3. I wouldnt belive any of what the article is saying Czech Republic in whole not just Prague (because everybody knows that the situation in Pergue is far different from the rest of the Republic in many of the aspects) is actually very unfriendly to LGBTQ+ for instance we still dont have marrige equality after what like 5 years… Yeah and I am aware that there is other countries like for example Poland Slovakia who got it even worse. But in my very painful personal experience the different is to tollarate and to accept… Also you can be very easily attacked or shouted at on the streets in smaller district cities and towns so be careful my advice to you is rather move to Germany cause you have at least basic rights…as a gay person in there.

    1. Hi!
      It’s true that we still have a long way to go on equality and lgbtq+ rights and just like you, I am disheartened about the amount of time it’s taken the deputies to even discuss the Equal Marriage Bill, let alone afford any more protection to lgbtq+ people through the law. Still, at least it’s on the agenda, so we have to be patient (I know it’s hard). I’d still say that overall this country is quite tolerant to minorities. It’s just that the haters are always the loudest.

      Hopefully we’ll be able to write a new article on this subject soon if the bill gets discussed.

      I hope you’re having a lovely week and are staying safe!

      Best,
      tereza

  4. I came here as a Czech lgbt person because I was interested in how foreigners view our country in terms of lgbt acceptance and I am slightly horrified. From my experience, you encounter a lot of homophobia on every day basis. Prague is like the only exception. I am not out so I don’t encounter direct discrimination much, but I see hate all around me. And you are telling me this is one of the best places to be gay? I think I’m just gonna go cry in a corner after reading this.

    1. Hi Em,
      I’m so sorry you’ve had such a bad experience. As a queer person myself, I have to partially agree with you on this, sadly. BUT I’ve also seen first-hand how far we’ve come from the first ever Czech pride in Brno (which I attended). We might be behind the US and the rest of the Western Europe, but we are slowly catching up and things will get better when the equal marriage bill finally passes (fingers crossed!). Aside from Prague, Brno and other university cities have great lgbt community, including festivals. Kino Art in Brno regularly promotes and supports the queer community, for instance. But yes, I am planning on writing another article on this topic soon where I’ll look at lgbt acceptance in Czechia through a more updated lens.

      Thank you for commenting! Stay safe!

      Best,
      Tereza

  5. Hi,
    My wife and I, legally married USA lesbian couple plan to move to Brno in the spring. We are both retired but would look for part time jobs if necessary. The problem is figuring out what kind of visa to apply for. Any suggestions? Thank you. Kindly, Marie & Linda

    1. Hi Marie!
      We are so happy you and your wife chose to live in Brno! I may be biased because I was born in Brno, but it’s a great city. If you’re planning on getting jobs, the best idea is to apply for employee cards (it’s both a work permit and a residency permit). However, I am not so sure if you can do that with a part-time job – you need to ask our expat consultants for better options.

      We would love to help you figure out everything related to your relocation and immigration case – please email us at brno@foreigners.cz and our immigration specialists will help you out.

      Best,
      Tereza

  6. That is absolutely one-sided by the government not by the people. I do not think that my homeland is cursed since social media are not filled with LGBT.

  7. Uhm, idk what Czech Republic you live in, but where I’m from it’s horrible. What’s the point of being the first post-communistic country to allow same sex partnership and having people in favour of LGBTQIA+, when we haven’t moved forward since early 2000… Our president calls transgenders monsters and agrees with Hungary, says if he was younger, he’d march on anti-trans parade, etc…

    1. Hi Lils,
      it’s true that the system isn’t friendly towards the community, but the majority of people are for equal marriage and adoption. We just have to be patient. It will happen eventually. I know it’s frustrating. All we can do in the meantime is support the organizations who are fighting for our rights, like We Are Fair.

      Best,
      Tereza

  8. Im planning to migrate in czech for work by next year in brno do you have any idea where i can find gender clinics to asses like hormones and stuff for trans people. My friends i. Malta thyr have this kind of clinics and i
    Wondering if there are in brno?

    1. Hi Sam,
      That’s a great question. I don’t think we have specialised centers for trans people here, let alone in Brno. I’m afraid you’re going to have to go to a regular doctor to get a referral to an Endocrinologist who will help you with hormone therapy prescription. Or maybe try and make an appointment with an Endocrinologists without talking to a doctor first. A sexuologist might also be helpful. I wish I could tell you more, but sadly I have no experience with this.

      Best of luck,
      Tereza

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