Friday 21 May 2010

MaltaStar: MGRM marks International Day against homophobia

http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=9086
13 May 2010 16:49

On 17 May the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) and Drachma will join other gay rights organisations in a large number of countries worldwide in the celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO).

This commemorative day is meant to remind the community that homophobia and transphobia are shameful reactions that must be openly fought against in today’s democratic societies.

The theme for 2010 is religions and religious oppression of sexual minorities. Across the world, in many different social and cultural contexts, homophobic and transphobic violence is being propagated by people who use religious arguments blindly to justify their positions.

This year, IDAHO campaigners want to show that different voices which warmly welcome sexual minorities do exist, and it was chosen to give a stronger platform to these often lone voices. Events are being held in more than 50 countries worldwide, from Brazil, Costa Rica and Turkey to Israel, Cambodia and Kenya.

The Malta Gay Rights Movement together with the gay Christian group Drachma will gather in City Gate Valletta on Monday 17th May to distribute flowers to passers-by as a sign of friendship, respect and mutual collaboration. In the event called ‘Flowers of Friendship’, flowers will have a bookmark attached with a positive quote printed to it.

The chosen quotes are:

“A parent who brings up a child to be a racist damages that child, damages the community in which they live, damages our hopes for a better world. A parent who teaches a child that there is only one sexual orientation and that anything else is evil denies our humanity and their own too.” – Desmond Tutu, bishop, activist and Nobel Prize winner.

“We do now have a firmer sense that being gay or lesbian is a regularly occurring non-pathological minority variant in the human condition, and we are beginning to get a sense that there are forms of flourishing proper to that condition – for instance, being allowed to live honestly and to undergo the humanization of desire openly in relationships with other such people.” – James Alison, theologian.

It is hoped that IDAHO 2010 brings forth a positive wave of social acceptance for sexual minorities worldwide, who at the least wish to live their lives in peace and tranquility, free from prejudice, harassment and violence and for those of us who dare to dream, communities which treat them equally and respect and honour the diversity of the human condition.

MGRM is a national working group member of the European Commission’s “For Diversity. Against Discrimination.” (FDAD) campaign. The campaign aims to raise awareness of discrimination and increase understanding of the EU laws which exist to protect us all. www.stop-discrimination.info

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