About this Archive

The Euro-Letter was published as a monthly newsletter on behalf of ILGA and (from 1997) ILGA-Europe) between 1992 and August 2005 by the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians (LBL F-48). In September 2005 the ILGA-Europe office in Brussels took over publication, continuing until 2011, when it was superseded by ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Digest.

The Euro-Letter started life at a time when ILGA was intensifying its campaigning activities at European level. Initially it provided a means of disseminating information among the relatively few (around 15) activists conducting advocacy in relation to the Council of Europe, the European Community (later the European Union) and the Conference (later Organisation) for Security and Cooperation in Europe, but it gradually evolved into a public newsletter for the lesbian and gay community on relevant European legal, juridical and political issues.

It also enabled sharing of information on developments at national level, particularly in East Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain. From February 1995 it moved from “snail mail” to email mode. Gradually the number of recipients increased to several hundred activists and interested parties all over Europe and other parts of the world.

The Euro-Letter Archive provides an invaluable contemporary record of campaigning developments across a wide range of topics, including historic events such as the adoption by the European Union of powers to combat sexual orientation discrimination in the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), decriminalisation of gay relationships by 15 former Communist countries on becoming members of the Council of Europe in the 1990s, the development of the LGBT movement in those countries, and the spread across much of Europe of laws protecting from discrimination and providing civil partnership/marriage for same-sex couples.

The volunteer team that produced the Euro-Letter up to 2005 was led by Steffen Jensen and included Lisbeth Andersen, Soeren Baatrup, Peter Bryld, Sanne Juhl, Torry Kjeldsen, and Ken Thomassen. Subsequent editions were edited by ILGA-Europe staff members Juris Lavrikovs and Nanna Moe.

In 2005 Steffen Jensen wrote an account of the history of the Euro-Letter. This can be found here.