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The European Union has designated 2007 as ‘European Year of Equal Opportunities for All’. The Year aims at making people in the EU more aware of their rights not to be discriminated against and at promoting equal opportunities in various areas, from healthcare to the workplace. Activities at national and EU level will focus on many grounds of discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The revision, through Additional Protocol 12, of Article 14 of the European Human Rights Convention presented an historic opportunity to reconsider the list of grounds of discrimination in this article. ILGA-Europe lobbied for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity and made submissions to the Council of Europe to this effect.

There are barriers to accessing health care that are specific to LGBT people. Those barriers experienced by other populations, e.g. lack of resources, geographic and social isolation, lack of information about and/or fear of medical procedures etc. may also pertain to LGBT people.