“Gay life in Albania” is hardly an accurate descriptive word for this country since there is no public Pride presence and few courageous activists who work mostly behind the scenes to lobby sympathetic government members and quietly offer support to young gays. But change will come as the country’s two LGBT rights and equality groups slowly push open the envelop of tolerance.
In the summer of 1994 the Government of Albania put forward a draft penal code under which homosexuality would have remained illegal, but with the maximum sentence reduced to three years. A campaign by the Gay Albania Society within Albania, and international pressure orchestrated by ILGA, in which the Council of Europe played an important role, led to the withdrawal of this draft law.
On January 20, 1995 the Albanian Parliament legalized homosexual relations in Albania. Article 137 of the old Penal Code promulgated under socialist Albania, which offered ten years of prison for simply “being homosexual” has thus been done away with completely.
Name: Albania
Population: 3601200
Capital: Tirana - Pop. 600000
Area: 28748 sq. km/ sq. miles
Language: Albanian
Religion: Muslim, Orthodox Christian, Catholic
Status of Homosexuality: Legal
Telephone Country Code: 355
Albania, Saranda City
Saranda is the capital of the District of Sarandë, Albania, and is one of the most important tourist attractions of the Albanian Riviera. It is situated on an open sea gulf of the Ionian Sea in the Mediterranean 2 nautical miles from the Greek island of Corfu. The city of Saranda has a population of
Albania, Butrint Ancient City Ruin
Butrint was an ancient Greek and later Roman city. Today it is an archeological site 14 kilometres south of the Albanian town of Saranda near the Greek border. It was known in antiquity as Bouthroton in Ancient Greek and Buthrotum in Roman Latin. Located on a small hill it overlooks the Vivari Channel. It was