Latvia

Overview

The article that prohibited male homosexuality was repealed in 1992. Discrimination on the grounds of sexual or gender identity in contexts of employment, housing or military is prohibited by Latvia’s anti-discrimination laws. However, same-sex partnerships are not recognized, adoption for same-sex couples is illegal and conversion therapy has not been banned. It is legal to change gender in Latvia without sex reassignement surgery (Equaldex LGBTQ rights: Latvia).

• An overview of rights and legal acts by ILGA Europe [in English].
• Country ranking by ILGA Europe [in English].

Resources

Books

• Ayoub, P. (2016). When States Come Out: Europe's sexual minorities and the politics of visibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Ruduša, R. (2014). Forced underground: Homosexuals in Soviet Latvia. Riga: Mansards.
• Sremac, Ganzevoort, Sremac, Srđan, & Ganzevoort, Reinder Ruard. (2015). Religious and sexual nationalisms in Central and Eastern Europe: Gods, gays, and governments. Boston: Brill. 
• Vērdiņš, Kārlis, & Ozolinš, Jānis. (2016). Queer Stories of Europe. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Dissertations

• Pelz, M., Hansen, Randall, Austin, Robert, & Way, Lucan. (2016). Europeanization, National Party Systems, and LGBT Rights: The Cases of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. 

Repositories

• A search engine of Latvia's National Library (Latvijas nacionālā bibliotēka) gives access to archives of periodicals including LGBTQ related material [in Latvian, Russian, English].
• E-resource repository of the University of Latvia [in English, Latvian, German, Russian].
• University of Latvia Theses repository [in English, Latvian, German, Russian].
• An integrated search engine for all the journals published by the University of Latvia [in English, Latvian, German, Russian].
• An integrated search engine for the libraries of the University of Latvia [in English, Latvian, German, Russian].
• An integrated search engine for the faculties of the University of Latvia gives access to abstracts of BA and MA theses including the theses on gender and sexuality [in English, Latvian, German, Russian].
• An integrated search engine for the institutes and agencies of the University of Latvia-gives access to academic articles and books including academic publications on gender and sexuality [in English, Latvian, German, Russian].
• Search engine for Riga Graduate School of Law [in English, Latvian, German, Russian].
• A list of reports related to gender equality provided by the Ministry of Welfare [in Latvian, English, Russian].
• A list of publications by Latvian Centre for Human Rights [in Russian, English, Latvian].
• Latvian Centre for Human Rights - a broad range of publications related to human rights including gender equality and LGBT rights [in Russian, English, Latvian].
• A list of publication about gender equality provided by EIGE [in English]. 

Data and statystics

• State-Sponsored Homophobia report: latest edition, includes maps and dataset, ILGA Europe - a world survey of sexual orientation laws + older editions [in English].
• European LGBT Survey, 2014. FRA Europe [in English]. 

Reports

• ECRI - Country monitoring in Latvia. Reports, 1997 - 2019 [in English].
• Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People. ILGA Europe, available from 2011 onwards [in English].
• Naida noziegumi: prakse un problēmas. Latvijas Cilvēktiesību centrs, 2017 [in Latvian].
• Report on Homophobic and Transphobic Hate Crimes and Incidents in Latvia 2013, Mozaika, 2014 [in English].
• Legal Study on Homophobia and Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Latvian Centre for Human Rights, February 2010 [in English].
• The social situation concerning homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in Latvia, Danish Institute for Human Rights, COWI, March 2009 [in English].
• Homofobiskā runa Latvijā: Politiķu monitorings (Homophobic Speech in Latvia: Monitoring of Politicians), MOZAIKA, 2007 [in Latvian].
• Combating Hate Crimes in Latvia: Legislation and Police Practice, Latvian Centre for Human Rights, 2008 [in English].
• Meeting the challenge of accession Surveys on sexual orientation discrimination in countries joining the European Union. ILGA Europe Policy Paper, April 2004 [in English].
• Sexual Orientation and Discrimination in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia 2002. Lithuanian Gay League, 2002 [in English]. 

News portals

• PRIDE.LV - publishes a wide selection of articles and videos related to LGBTQ and gender, as well as an online magazine Skapis [in Latvian]. 

Audio-visual

• Homo@LV - a movie featuring the LGBT situation in Latvia. It is available [in Latvian with English subtitles] and [in Latvian with Russian subtitles].
• Sievas - a documentary about domestic violence [in Latvian with English subtitles].
• A video channel of an NGO Marta featuring documentaries related to gender [in Latvian with English subtitles]. 

Organisations

• Mozaika - a Latvian LGBT organisation. It publishes related articles and video content on their Draugiem and Facebook, and Youtube accounts. Languages: [in Latvian].