Meanwhile, other organisations in Lebanon continue with the planned activities but suspend the use of “Beirut Pride” brand.

The situation is likely to keep evolving. Follow #IDAHOT on Twitter for updates

Read the report of events by Reuters

TAKE ACTION

This #IDAHOTB, The Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality invites you to light a candle in reverence for individuals in the region who

1. Lost their lives to gender-based violence
2. Suffer from structural and organizational oppression
3. Fled their homes from discrimination
4. Faced bullying in public spaces
5. Got detained for choosing love
6. Stood up for their basic rights

Officially announced is the UN LGBTI Core group IDAHOTB event on Monday, May 17th, from 3:00-5:00PM EST in Conference Room 1, at the UN headquarters in New York.

This year, the proposal is to focus attention on ALLIANCES for SOLIDARITY

Indeed, no battle can be won in isolation. We all need to keep strengthening alliances, especially when we need to ensure safety, fight violence, lobby for legal change, and/or campaign to change hearts and minds.

Putting the focus of the Day on Solidarity and Alliances can create a valuable opportunity for all of us to reach out to our current partners to reinforce our bond, to reach out to new partners to raise awareness of our commonalities, and to engage in collective action around the Day.

This focus should also be a welcome reminder of the need for solidarity within the communities of sexual and gender minorities, as the rights of one specific group cannot be solidly secured if the rights of other groups are left unchallenged.

The focus on alliances should also highlight the necessity for sexual and gender minorities to be allies to other vulnerable groups (e.g. migrants, people living in poverty, vulnerable children, etc.).

We wish everyone a fantastic IDAHOTB

Despite difficulties brought about by the nation’s religiously conservative elements, a private community event was organized by the Brunei Project organization. The event was attended by community organisers and members of the LGBT community and was supported by the ASEAN network, B Change Foundation and the Island of Southeast Asia Network on Male and Transgender Sexual Health (ISEAN).

As one of the latest countries to celebrate IDAHOT for the first time, Bhutan’s inclusion now brings the total number of nations to mark the day to a staggering 132.

The video was released in the week of IDAHOT and is available to watch online with English subtitles.

The video release was also part of a broader ongoing campaign from AZAD LGBT, who hope to draw attention to the discrimination facing LGBT people, while also tackling negative and hurtful opinions. The group have recently also released a ‘toolkit’ for parents, families and teachers hoping to learn more about LGBTI issues in young people.

Anti-LGBT sentiment was also supported this year by outside forces. Russian and Western Christians gathered in Tbilisi for the World Congress of Families. The event was held in Tbilisi specifically to support the Georgian Orthodox Church’s ‘Day of Families’, which was launched in 2013 to counter pro-equality IDAHOT celebrations on May 17.

But despite the threat of violent persecution activists attempted once again to hold a small action to mark the day. Campaigners from a number of groups held an unannounced ‘flash’ event to mark the day and to remind the world that the LGBT community continues to exist, despite their persecution. These demonstrations included the placing of a symbolic rainbow stool outside the meeting place of the World Congress of Families, which was later removed by police.

A number of activists also used the day to protest the WCF’s support of the Georgian Orthodox Church with signs, slogans and chants. These protests unfortunately led to 10 arrests of campaigners, who were charged with vandalism and/or trespassing.

But despite the threat of violence and discrimination supporters this year managed to support IDAHOT with a wonderful online action. In an effort to draw attention to discrimination faced by the LGBT community campaigners from Gender Z created and shared an online video.

The video features members of the group and local LGBT community and hoped to challenge attitudes of the LGBT community, while also tackling negative stereotypes and attitudes. Watch the full video on youtube.

The video was also part of a small Rainbow Flashmob organized by campaigners in the city of Zaporzhia, which as well as drawing attention to the group, also provided a valuable outlet for LGBT young people in the area.

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Five activists broke the silence over LGBT rights in Belarus on May 17, The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHO), by handing out leaflets in support of equality and tolerance on the central streets of the nation’s capital and picketing at a US embassy over marriage equality legalization last year.

One of the participants, Aleksa Klimenka, stated that he came with his de-facto husband with whom he has lived together for seven years. The event was also officially supported by MSD-MH, a Belarusian social democratic youth organization, whose members also participated in it.

The activists were followed by six journalists and two observers from human rights organizations. Almost all of the passers that were willing to take leaflets reacted peacefully though the participants had a heated debate with an older woman who argued that “it is illogical to be gay”.

Aleksa Klimenka responded: “In 2012 my husband had to quit attending the university just before graduating because of the “ distribution” [in Belarus many university graduates are distributed for compulsory work for two years, often at remote destinations.] If he were my wife we could have been distributed together, but since we are nobodies in the eyes of the state, we could be separated for several years. He had to quit the university. As a result he has neither a higher education nor a job, and that then has become a major issue for us both”.

After handing out the leaflets three activists held a solidarity picket in front of US embassy in support of marriage equality achieved there nationwide last year. One of them stood with a rainbow flag, the second one held a placard with drawn US flag and inscription that reads “You lit the Soviet darkness for me and my husband”. The third protestor held a placard with a photo and a quote of a US federal judge John Heyburn who ruled Kentucky’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

Both actions were not permitted by the authorities and the exact time of the latter one was not published, though immediately after protestors came to US embassy, they were surrounded by nearly ten plain-clothed men who were watching and filming the picket. Surprisingly, neither they nor any police officers approached the activists. Perhaps the presence of the journalists and human rights defenders and the added fact that on the same day the US Department of State representatives had visited Minsk to discuss democracy and human rights also helped the protestors. Though recent developments in Belarus indicate that street protestors can be later fined up to $600 without even being approached by the police, as well as up to 15 days of jail time – the latter consequence was also frequently used until last summer.

These actions in support of LGBT rights are the first ones in Belarus since 2013, when the local LGBT activists experienced crackdown from the government, some of whom fled the country to seek asylum in the West. Protestors said that the previous picket in front of US embassy in Minsk was held in 2003 but now, at the time of so-called liberalization when Belarusian government relaxed repressions in order to please the West and make it lift the sanctions, they wanted to use such an opportunity to express their opinion.
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More reports of the event, with photos:
In Russian http://news.tut.by/society/496704.html
In Belarusian http://spring96.org/be/news/83095