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UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES)

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Estonia

Overview

Homosexuality is legal in Estonia since 1992. Even though the Cohabitation agreement allowing same-sex couples to register their status has been passed in parliament in 2014, the procedures enabling the agreement to function in practice have not been established. Same-sex marriages performed abroad can be registered in Estonia. Same-sex couples can only adopt their stepchildren in Estonia. Discrimination based on gender and sexual identity is outlawed in employment and military. It is legal in Estonia to change one's legal gender and name without sex reassignment surgery. 

LGBTQ map of Estonia

Academic institutions

Resources

Books
Dissertations
Periodicals
  • Ariadne’s Clew - the first journal in Estonia to address academic feminism, and women’s and men’s studies [in English and Estonian]. 
Repositories
  • Digital Library gives access to publications of Tallinn University including academic work on LGBTQ and gender [in Estonian and English]. Database of Estonian articles 
  • Index Scriptorum Estoniae contains information about articles from Estonian newspapers at 1900-2013 and Estonian journals, serial publications and anthologies at 1990-2016. It does not give access to articles, but it is helpful to identify and locate existing publications [in Estonian and English]. The National Library of Estonia’s digital archive
  • DIGAR stores online publications, print files and digitised copies of the publication, including the ones on gender and sexuality [in Estonian, Russian, and English].
  • Tartu University Dissertation Repository [in Estonian, English, German].
  • DSpace at the University of Tartu is a repository for all electronic materials including e-theses and e-publications, digitized theses and books, manuscripts and images etc. [in Estonian, English, German]. Repository for e-publications in
  • Humanities and Arts at Tartu University [in Estonian, English, German]. Repository for e-publications in
  • Social Sciences at Tartu University [in Estonian, English, German]. Repository for e-publications at the
  • University of Tartu Library [in Estonian, English, German]. A list of reports and articles on gender in Estonia from EIGE [multilingual]. A list of reports about LGBT in Estonia provided by
  • ETIS - Estonian Research Information System, the search engine gives access to academic publications including on LGBT and gender [in Estonian and English].
Data and statistics
Reports
News portals
  • Feministeerium is an independent feminist media outlet in Estonia which is interested in an intersectional perspective and has a soft spot for queer issues. They like different feminist voices to be heard and offer a platform for feminist writers in Estonia and abroad, representing a variety of perspectives. The material is available in Estonian, English, and Russian. Their Facebook page [in Estonian, Russian, English]. 
Organisations
  • Estonian LGBT Association website publishes LGBT-related news and information about events. The association organises seminars, and events for the LGBT community in Estonia, and assists LGBT people with reporting hate crimes. Their Facebook profile [in Estonian, English].
  • The Church of the Gentiles (GK) is a non-profit association that unites homosexual Christians in Estonia. The website provides space for discussing issues of faith and sexuality [in Estonian, Russian]. 
Other resources