The International Day Against Homophobia, initiated by a Quebec organization, was scheduled to be celebrated in more than 50 countries yesterday, decrying discrimination against gays and lesbians.
“There are 192 countries at the UN, and half of them still ban homosexuality, notably most countries in Africa, in Asia and Arab countries,” said Laurent McCutcheon, president of Quebec’s Emergence Foundation, an activist group behind the annual fete.
Five countries punish homosexual acts with death, Emergence said on its Web site.
In 2003, Emergence launched a national day against homophobia in Canada, which caught on internationally in the past three years.
May 17 was chosen because it was on this date in 1990 that the WHO removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. The acronym IDAHO is often used to delineate this day.
“These last three years, we’ve seen new initiatives all over the place,” McCutcheon said. “But there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Only 67 countries signed the first ever statement on sexual orientation and gender identity at the UN General Assembly last year, sponsored by France and the Netherlands.
“The Vatican didn’t even want to sign it,” McCutcheon said.
“Russia also seems to be a hard nut,” he said, noting a series of violent attacks on gays, lesbians and transgender people in the country.
May 17 provides a rallying point for the world’s supporters of gay and lesbian rights, McCutcheon said, expressing his hope that it would some day be endorsed by the UN.
Emergence, he said, has received requests for promotional materials and announcements of festivities from groups in countries such as Albania, Germany, Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, Britain and the US.
Emergence said this year’s campaign message is that homosexuality has no borders, as it exists in all countries. The campaign targets primarily Canada’s immigrant communities. A new poll conducted for the organization showed children of immigrants have a more positive view of homosexuality than their parents.
Next year, the organization will tackle homosexuality in sports.
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