Latvia Bans Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation

The Latvian Parliament voted to support an amendment to the country’s Labour Law to explicitly ban sexual orientation discrimination in employment. Before the decision, Latvia was, according to ILGA-Europe, the only member state of the European Union which failed to comply with provisions of the 2000 EU employment equality directive requiring EU member states to protect employees from discrimination based on their sexual orientation.
During the parliamentary debate, some Latvian parliamentarians once again expressed open hatred and prejudice towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. ILGA-Europe, the European lobby association for sexual minorities, is also concerned that the decision to implement the EU directive was taken with a relatively marginal majority (46 parliamentarians in favour, 35 against, 3 abstained and 9 did not vote). In addition, this vote only comes after the President of Latvia returned this amended legislation back to the Parliament for reconsideration after a first rejection by Latvian parliamentarians.
Excerpted from: ILGA Europe