International Day against LGBTQIA+ Discrimination 2022 – “Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights”
Since 2005, IDAHOBIT* addresses discrimination and structural hostility against LGBTQIA+ people, aiming to push for equality and human rights for the queer community and highlighting the progress being made around the globe. The date was chosen in remembrance of May 17th, 1990, when the World Health Organization removed homosexuality as a classified mental disorder.
To this day, LGBTQIA+ people have to face prejudice, stigma, social exclusion, and violence on a daily basis. They often do not have access to adequate legal protection, essential healthcare, and are denied bodily autonomy when forced to go through medical treatment or surgery without indication.
As of now, 69 countries still criminalize consenting same-sex relations. That’s one-third of all countries.
The criminalization does not only put people at risk of blackmail, arrest and imprisonment, it is also closely related to the ongoing practice of conversion therapies in at least 68 countries worldwide.
IDAHOBIT*’s motto this year is “Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights” and serves as a wake-up call that rights and choices are for everyone – no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity. BUT today, it is also necessary to recognize that true allyship includes the greater LGBTQIA+ community. This means that the named issues need to be tackled with an intersectional approach. Because the troubles, e.g. a white gay man faces are not the be-all and end-all of the LGBTQIA+ struggle. There are people who are even more marginalized.
So, if we stand up for the LGBTQIA+ community, we stand up for Black, Indigenous and PoC queer folk, queer people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, with refugee status, …
We stand up for the entire community!
