May 17 Together, Resisting, Supporting, Healing!

Monday, May 17th, marks International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT or IDAHOT), and with the theme for 2021 being “Together: Resisting, Supporting, Healing!” and now more than ever it is important to break the silence, use our voices and stand up for LGBTQ+ Equality.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been disproportionally felt by the LGBTQ+ communities around the world.

• Together

IDAHOBIT is celebrated in 130 countries despite the fact that 37 of them criminalised homosexuality. With many countries still on lockdown or having curfews, it is important that the LGBTQ+ community remains seen and heard.

The publisher of DIVA Magazine is calling for the L to be added to the acronym transforming IDAHOBIT to IDAHOBLIT to raise awareness and visibility of the lesbian community and the discrimination they too face. In a recent article, she states : ‘Four years after its foundation, in 2009, IDAHO acknowledged trans people as part of their family and so IDAHO became IDAHOT. Then, six years after that, bisexual people were included and IDAHOBIT was born (the “I” doesn’t stand for anything – it just makes the word easier to say). A full 16 years after the foundation of the original IDAHO, we are yet to see the acknowledgment of lesbians as people with a distinct identity who are worthy of inclusion in the acronym. This, sadly, is all too reminiscent of history’s continued marginalisation of lesbians, the best-known example perhaps being that Queen Victoria apparently ‘couldn’t get her head around the fact that lesbians even existed’.

• Resisting

IDAHOBIT started as IDAHO in 2004 and it’s heartbreaking to see that in 2021, seventeen years later , the amount of violence and discrimination experienced by the LGBTQ+ population around the world is still very much prevalent. From LGBTQ+ so-called ‘free zone’ in Poland to the recent murder of twenty-year-old Ali Reza in Iran. The LGBTQ+ liberation movement is built on the thousands of people who have put their own safety and lives on the line to ensure our community is respected and accepted, wherever and whenever, we can we need to refuse to accept or comply with legislations and measures which target our community. We need to continue to fight against oppression using whatever means we have whether it be signing a petition, writing to your elected representative, or speaking up as an ally. Everyone can do one small thing to combat prejudice and discrimination.

• Supporting

Allies play an important role in the fight against homophobia, lesbophobia, biphobia, intersexphobia, and transphobia. Support must come from within the community, where we need to continue to be an ally to each other , but also from the wider society and people who do not identify with the LGBTQ+ community. Uniting with our allies will make us visible and included will lead to a better society where everyone can be accepted and valued.

• Healing

May 17 has received official recognition from a range of international organisations, governments, and state bodies including the European Parliament, many UN member states, and countless local authorities. The date was chosen to commemorate the day in 1990 when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases. NO longer being classified as a disease is healing.

The purpose for IDAHOBIT is to bring attention to the discrimination LGBTQ+ people face everywhere to start conversations about how we can create a more compassionate, inclusive society. So, my hope for the future is to call the event IDAHOBLIT and to see one day the eradication to the need to have such days, because it means that they are no longer needed.