IDAHOBiT marked in US, around the world

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The annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was marked in the U.S. and around the world on May 17, 2019. (Photo by Ted Eytan; courtesy Flickr)

Politicians and activists in the U.S. and around the world on Friday commemorated the annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) issued a statement shortly before the Equality Act, which would add
sexual orientation and gender identity to federal civil rights laws, passed
in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“On International Day Against
Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, we reject the bigotry and discrimination
that undermines our democracy and inflicts pain and violence on LGBTQ
individuals around the world,” said Pelosi. “No person,
anywhere, should face harassment or fear losing their jobs, their homes or
their lives because of who they are or whom they love.”

OutRight Action International
Executive Director Jessica Stern is among those who took part in a U.N. LGBT
Core Group event in New York that commemorated IDAHOBiT.

Human Rights Campaign Global Ty Cobb in a statement noted a provision of Brunei’s new penal code based on Shariah that sought to impose to death penalty upon anyone found guilty of consensual same-sex sexual relations and the continued anti-LGBTI crackdown in Chechnya. Cobb also criticized the Trump administration for his “absence” of “leadership on these issues.”

“While countries and
communities around the globe are increasingly embracing LGBTQ people, far too
many of us still live with the threat of discrimination, violence and even
death — including in Brunei, where draconian laws are targeting LGBTQ people,
and in Chechnya, where alarming human rights violations against LGBTQ people
continue,” said Cobb. “In the absence of White House leadership on these
issues, it is critical that the international community continues to stand
together in support of LGBTQ people around the world.”

U.S. Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry and the U.S. Embassy in Honduras on Friday publicly acknowledged IDAHOBiT.

The Australian Embassy in
D.C. on Friday hosted an IDAHOBiT event with Amazin LeThi of Athlete Ally and
other activists. The State Department has yet to publicly acknowledged
IDAHOBiT.

“After issuing a
strong statement last year for IDAHOTB, it’s sad that Secretary Pompeo
apparently decided not to issue a statement this year — on the very day that
the U.S. Congress voted to grant civil rights protections to LGBT
Americans,” Council for Global Equality Chair Mark Bromley told the
Washington Blade in a statement. “This is the first time in many years
that there has not been a statement from the secretary or the State Department
in recognition of IDAHOTB, a message that is then amplified in meaningful ways
by our embassies abroad.”

Victory Institute conference in Colombia begins with moment of silence

IDAHOBiT, which was previously known as the International Day Against Homophobia, first took place on May 17, 2005, to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Lawmakers in Taiwan on
Friday approved
a bill that will extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. Consensual
same-sex sexual relations nevertheless remain criminalized in more than 70
countries and anti-LGBTI violence and discrimination remains pervasive around
the world.

Police in the Turkish
capital of Ankara on Friday reportedly disrupted an IDAHOBiT event. Cuban
police on May 11 arrested several people who participated in an unsanctioned
LGBTI march in Havana.

Mariela Castro, the
daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who directs Cuba’s National
Center for Sexual Education, on Friday in a series of posts on her Facebook page
highlighted several IDAHOBiT events in the city of Camagüey. An LGBTQ Victory
Institute conference that is taking place in Bogotá, Colombia, began on Friday
with a moment of silence in honor of people in Latin America who have been
victims of violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Published at Sat, 18 May 2019 00:08:21 +0000

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