From Facts to Feelings. LGBT Identities Before European Courts

Law and human rights are increasingly estranged from their factual dimension. Self-understanding/definition along with personal feelings/inner statuses are acquiring relevance, especially in the interpretation of domestic/HR courts. The shift “from facts to feelings” is visible in the area of LGBT rights, through which new paradigms of legal protection are emerging. The paper firstly focuses on the evolutionary protection of “the right to family life” (Art. 8 ECHR), it secondly takes into consideration the debate about recognition of transsexual people/gender reassignment and it finally addresses some of the questions that these judicial/legal trends arise. The paper argues that judicial recognition of individual/LGBT rights is accelerating a trend which valorize/prioritize inner feelings over socially recognizable facts/goods. Moving “from facts to feelings” requires nonetheless new lens of analysis for balancing contemporary social exigencies and individual entitlements.