International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia (IDAHO)
By Michael Adee, Executive Director, More Light Presbyterians
Thursday, May 17 is the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia (IDAHO). IDAHO is inspired by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights that declares that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
May 17 was chosen as the day of this event because homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 17, 1990. This action was taken by the American Psychiatric Association in our country in 1973.
This year IDAHO is focused on making schools safer to improve everybody’s chance to gain a high quality education. In December 2011, UNESCO, other UN agencies, representatives of education ministries, NGOs, and other stakeholders issued a “call upon all governments to live up to their responsibility to provide universal access to a high quality education by eliminating the barriers created by homophobia and transphobia, including the unacceptable and devastating prevalence of anti-LGBTI bias and violence in elementary, secondary and tertiary levels.”
This year IDAHO includes an IDAHO Lesson Teacher’s Brief (pdf). We would like to encourage all Presbyterians to email this teacher’s brief to administration and teachers in your school district.
Watch the IDAHO 2012 Video:
To learn more about IDAHO, or the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia, please do check out these resources:
Homophobiaday.org
More Light Presbyterians is proud to be a supportive organization of the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia. Since 1974, we have been working to end discrimination against LGBT people and their families in both church and society. We are keenly aware that there are Presbyterian congregations, national churches and seminaries in over 100 countries. Therefore, while our work focuses primarily upon the achievement of spiritual, ordination and marriage equality with the Presbyterian Church (USA), we also earnestly advocate for the end to discrimination against LGBT persons around the world.
On this day, May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia, we want to remind our Church and the world that all persons are children of God, created in the image of God and unconditionally loved by God. We are working to remove barriers to all persons knowing they are children of God and to become one human family.
Learn more about More Light Presbyterians
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Image Courtesy of More Light Presbyterians