Inclusion in Smart Cities
There is a complex network of dimensions that make a smart city “intelligent”, i.e. smart environment, smart mobility, and smart economy providing sustainable, accessible, and effective solutions to their citizens that can ease their lives. Another equally important component is the human aspect, which is about creating a city that fosters inclusion, embraces diversity, and ensures that all groups are able to engage in and shape their cities.
This issue is particularly relevant for the LGBT+ community that is often left behind in the process of urban development. In this section, we discuss the issue with representatives of two organisations working in the field of LGBT+ community inclusion on national and international levels respectively: Anastasia Danilova, the executive director of GENDERDOC-M Information Centre and Manuel Rosas Vázquez, the coordinator of the Rain- bow Cities Network.
Manuel Rosas Vázquez is the coordinator at Rainbow Cities Network. In this capacity, he works with the Board to set the strategy and direction of the network, manages relationships with our members and other international bodies, and represents the network on platforms around the world. He is a specialist in international relations and strategist on LGBT+ policies. He holds a master’s in Public Policy. Anastasia Danilova is the Executive Director of GENDERDOC-M Information Center, located in Chisinau, Moldova. Before becoming Executive Director in April 2010, she was GENDERDOC-M’s Women’s Program coordinator. She was also involved as a volunteer in the publication of a magazine for lesbians, Theme. She shared her personal story and motivated other community members to protect their rights in Moldova’s homophobic society. Anastasia is one of few open LGBT+ people in Moldova who represents GENDERDOC-M at both the national and international levels, speaks publicly on LGBT+ issues, and organizes public activities including Pride marches.
Tell us about your organisations. What do you do?
Anastasia Danilova: The Information Centre “GENDERDOC-M” is one of the only NGO actively promoting LGBT+ rights in Moldova. GENDERDOC-M has carried out more than fifty projects at different levels raising public awareness about sexual orientation and gender identity, lobbying state institutions and international organisations for LGBT+ interests and rights. Our Centre also aims at preventing HIV/AIDS and STDs, promoting healthy lifestyles and offering psychological and legal assistance for the community as well as organizing support groups (for transgender people, seropositive gay people, older gay people, relatives of people from LGBT+ community) and conducting activities with professional groups such as psychologists, sociologists, journalists, police and doctors.
Manuel Rosas Vázquez: I would start by acknowledging that humanity is diverse, complex, and colourful, while our identity, culture, and expressions are intricately entwined into our being. This diversity should be a cause of pride and love, and not a reason to hide or be scared. But members of LGBT+ people around the world still face stigma, discrimination, exclusion, and in extreme cases violence. Rainbow Cities Network and its 33 member cities work to guarantee a person’s sexual rights with the help of innovative public policies in their respective cities which encourages LGBT+ individuals to enjoy their sexual identity and exercise control over their own bodies. The Rainbow Cities Network has existed since 2012, initially only as an informal network subsidised by the Dutch Government. However, the subsidy finished in 2018 and the members decided to keep up with the great work of the network and in July 2019 The RCN was registered in Amsterdam as a non-profit organisation.
Manuel, how can a city become a member of the network? And what opportunities does this membership open for a city?
Boroughs, counties, small, and large cities that have an active LGBT+ (inclusive) policy within the local administration can become a member of our organisation. As per our By-laws, all interested cities need to send an application consisting of a signed Memorandum of Understanding accompanied by 2 so-called one-pagers. One describing the LGBT+ policy and the second one describing three best practices conducted by the city in the year of application. After the application has been approved by all members, the applicant city then pays the annual fee. The opportunities are limitless, cooperation among the members, joint events, and activities as well as to contribute to the annual publication of the organisations best practices.
Why is LGBT+ inclusion crucial for a city’s development and resilience?
Manuel Rosas Vázquez: LGBT+ citizens are an integral part of every society. Therefore, modern societies and successful cities cannot be conceived without the full inclusion of LBGT+ individuals. There is evidence that shows that inclusive cities attract talented people and some of those talented people might consider migrating to one of those cities that welcome openly and clearly people from the LGBT+ collective. This makes the cities more competitive. Recently the organisation ‘Open for Business’ published a study that shows a ranking of cities that are competitive globally and I am pleased to share with you that among those cities 9 belong to our network, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Mexico City, and Sao Paulo.
Anastasia Danilova: Participation of all citizens in developing a city’s infrastructure is crucial, because diversity helps to make decisions that are suitable for all residents of the city and makes it a space, where everyone feels safe and included.
How can urban planning work toward making cities safer and more inclusive for people discriminated against based on their sexualities?
Manuel Rosas Vázquez: Around the world and in Europe LGBT+ individuals constitute a significant number of the poor. Trans- gender women and gay men still represent the highest number of individuals in our community living with HIV which might lead to developing severe symptoms because of COVID-19. Therefore, local governments need to address this problem through an intersectional approach and urban planning plays an important role to prevent the isolation of our community when thinking about how cities are built.
Anastasia, your organisation operates on a national level. What are the key challenges you face in your advocacy and community work?
There are a number of barriers that LGBT+ communities face in Moldova. First of all, there is social intolerance and high levels of homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia in society. As a result, many LGBT+, especially from rural areas, fear to disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity as well as to report to the police and take any legal action when facing abuse. At the same time crimes against LGBT+ individuals are not recognised as hate crimes. Another problem we face is hate speech and discriminatory rhetoric advanced by local politicians, churches, and public figures. On top of that, there is a lack of a clear legal definition of gender at a state level.
One of the most disturbing LGBT+ related issues in our region (Central and Eastern Europe) might be police harassment. What role can the cooperation between law enforcement agencies and LGBT+ communities play in improving their safety in public spaces and tackling LGBT+ related hate crime and discrimination?
Anastasia Danilova: Hate crimes against LGBT+ individuals are not recognised as such, and the police defines them as hooliganism, theft, or assault. There are also cases of attempted extortion by police officers who extort money from gay people at their gatherings in exchange for not disclosing their sexual orientation. In addition, there are known cases where the police refuse to draw up reports if the victims are LGBT+ people, while the manner in which police officers treat LGBT+ individuals may include insults and degrading treatment. When such cases come to our attention, we file a complaint with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Meanwhile, since the police are aware of our organisation, the attitude towards LGBT+ individuals who contact the police immediately changes, when “GENDERDOC-M” is mentioned or when our employees provide assistance. At the same time, every year the police protects the participants of public LGBT+ events, does not hinder the holding of them, and treat the organisers with respect.
Who are the main actors in making cities more open and welcoming to the people of diverse sexualities?
Manuel Rosas Vázquez: Well, this is a question with multiple answers and depends on whom you ask. But what is undeniable is the preponderant participation of the local administration to fully recognise their LGBT+ population and prevent discrimination in public spaces.
What is your experience of cooperation with public authorities? Do you think it is important to have a state-level action plan for LGBT+ issues?
Anastasia Danilova: This cooperation with public authorities is clearly important, since NGOs cannot bring a fundamental change on their own, especially when it comes to informing the population and introducing LGBT+ issues in the field of education. Unfortunately in our context, we are lacking political commitment, since many politicians benefit from having LGBT+ issues as a manipulative tool in public discourse, which helps them to win votes. Our organisation has a well-established cooperation with the Ministry of Health on health and prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is also open to cooperation to some degree. For example, we cooperate in the field of LGBT+ march protection and police participation in our training programs on SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity). However, police education is still neither widespread, nor centralised, and the institution re- mains homophobic and transphobic. What is more, sometimes its members themselves become a source of discrimination and blackmail.
What are the first steps city administration and policy-makers can/should take to support equality of LGBT+ people?
Manuel Rosas Vázquez: This is also a complex answer, but I would say that the cities are interested in moving forward to fully recognise and prevent discrimination against the LGBT+ community. First of all, it is necessary to have the political will, followed by the training on LGBT+ topics to first response officials like the police department, fire-fighters, and health care personnel, enact a policy within the local administration that develops programs and work with LGBT+ local groups.
What are some strategies NGOs and city councils can follow to promote LGBT+ inclusion in their communities?
Anastasia Danilova: I think it is truly important to have supporters in municipal councils who can change attitudes toward the issue from within and include different groups in the decisionmaking, including LGBT+ individuals. In my opinion, it is one of the most effective and powerful strategies at the moment, because the process in Moldova as well as many other countries of Central and Eastern Europe is still in the initial stage.
What is the role of technologies in supporting diversity and fostering LGBT+ inclusion?
Manuel Rosas Vázquez: New technologies are an ally to our community especially IT tools, through those, our community is able to express their needs with absolute anonymity that in some cases is very important because some members of our community unfortunately still need to hide. There are many examples in Europe where online surveys have helped local, regional, and international organisations to map the needs that LGBT+ individuals face in their everyday life. For example, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights announced the results of the largest conducted LGBT+ survey in Europe. Results suggest that there has been little progress within recent years. For example, many same-sex couples report that they are still afraid of holding their partner’s hand in public, 40 per cent of interviewees have experienced harassment, and discrimination rates remain high in public spaces like schools, cafes, and nightclubs. The Transgender community is the group experiencing the most severe discrimination, especially when it comes to identification documents and access to public services.
What is your vision for LGBT+ inclusion in cities of Central and Eastern Europe? What are the main challenges and opportunities do you see?
Anastasia Danilova: I will reflect on these questions through our experience in Moldova. Talking about main challenges, first of all, for now it is impossible to establish effective cooperation with municipal councils due to their high levels of homophobia and transphobia. Even the use of the rainbow symbol sparks a negative response. For example, one of the municipal councillors from the socialists’ party demanded a ban on the use of rainbows in the city, considering it a threat. There are no LGBT+ places like bars, clubs or cafes in the capital, not to mention the rest of the country. All attempts to open such places have failed because they were not profitable. So all we can do is rent a space to hold a private event for LGBT+ people. Other challenges I have already mentioned, they are a lack of open LGBT+ citizens as well as their exclusion in urban spaces. Talking about opportunities, one of the most prominent is to work with individual members of municipal councils who are strong allies of the LGBT+ community or who are part of the community themselves. However, as I said it before, this is only the initial phase. At the same time, solidarity, partnership, and the implementation of joint activities on issues that affect all, like environment, accessibility, mobility, waste separation, etc. is one of the ways to foster a positive attitude towards LGBT+ people, because they are not just representatives of the LGBT+ community, they can also responsible and active citizens.
Manuel Rosas Vázquez: Countries and cities from Central and Eastern Europe must recognize, protect, and fight discrimination against LGBT+ communities in their territories not only because is the right thing to do, but because they have the moral responsibility to grant and protect human rights to all its citizens. The main challenge is to educate and provide accurate information to the citizens that are opposed to fully recognise basic rights to LGBT+ individuals. I trust that the citizens of Central and Eastern Europe are willing to learn and to cooperate with the rest of Europe in protecting LGBT+ rights, an example of that is that we have Ljubljana as a founding member of the network and more recently Kotor in Montenegro joined our network. This is a clear sign that more people in the region want social justice and equal rights for everyone.
This article was initially published by Cooperation and Development Network. You can read the full publication at https://www.cdnee.org/publications