Gender-diverse people* use different methods of expressing their gender in their own cultural and linguistic contexts. Some languages, such as English, have a ready-made alternative, e.g. ‘they’, while many other languages, such as French, have had to create new ‘non-standard’ forms, e.g. ‘iel’ (instead of ‘il’ or ‘elle’), while others still have repurposed existing forms in their language, e.g. ‘ono’ (a third-person singular pronoun used for objects and children) in Polish. Other languages have yet to figure out how best to talk to and about gender-diverse people.

If, like me, you got the traditional Luxembourgish sex ed treatment, you learned a whole lot about the way sperm cells are produced but not so much about consent and pleasure. You also learned nothing about the social and political context which we live in, and how it impacts our sexuality and relationships.

Learn about the history of witch hunts in Luxembourg and beyond, and join our FLINTA*-only march to Take Back the Night!

By now, you are likely to have observed big corporations swapping their traditional logos for a rainbow flag or a pride-themed background since the beginning of the month of June. This happens every year, special “pride” collections are put on the market, and at first glance, consumers think they are being great allies whilst brands keep a politically correct facade.

Luxembourg made history when its current head of state, Xavier Bettel, became the first openly gay prime minister in the world to be reelected for a second term in 2018. Nevertheless, Luxembourg’s queer history is rather hard to tell, with very little evidence of documented LGBTQIA+ events.