LGBT organizations in Podgorica welcomed May 17 with a 3 days long film festival and a new publication on testimonies on social exclusion of the LGBT community.

LGBT Forum Progress released a new publication in the month of May. The new publication “Myths and stereotypes – Violence and hate speech towards the LGBT persons: Police and judicial practice in Montenegro” represents a testimony on the social exclusion of the LGBT community, that is, the social criminalization of LGBT persons.

Also Queer Montenegro held a 3 day long international queer film festival in Podgorica. The program started on May 18 and ended on May 20, attracting activists also from neighboring countries.

To see a full list of the program and movies:
http://queermontenegro.org/vijesti/73-katalog-merlinka-festivala-merlinka-festival-catalogue

Iranian LGBT and feminist activists commemorated May 17, as a way of promoting freedom of expression for LGBT people, and for all, in Iran. One of the goals of the campaigns was to end hate speech against, and scapegoating of, LGBT communities and women in the media, and to promote free expression for all.

May 17 in Tehran: No homophobia in Persian media!

Lesbian & Gay – Knowledge, Education, Rights, News (LG KERN) coordinated a joint media/journalism campaign among Farsi speaking activists. Around IDAHOT 2014, they aimed to raise awareness about homophobia online, especially via all global Persian websites or media. Activists monitored information on media messages which contains hateful and homophobic messages, and promoted their own campaign images, texts and videos in their place.

Source: LG Kern

A special focus on media in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan

The goal of this action was also to recognize, report and fight against hateful messages and news worldwide, with a special focus on media in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Source: LG Kern

Feminists organise in Tehran

Also for May 17, 2014, a group of feminists produced and launched an online publication releases in Tehran about heterosexism and sexism.

Flashmob Video

LG KERN also disseminated a flashmob video filmed in Tehran. The video features someone walking through the streets of the Iranian capital, using the rainbow flag as a cape. The video is accompanied by Googoosh’s song “Behesht”, a song she recently dedicated (in 2014) to the fight for equality, regardless of the gender of who we love. Googoosh is a famous Iranian pop star, and the video tells the story of lesbian couple.

To watch the flashmob video, click here

Further Information

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lgkern2
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LGKERN2

Latvia celebrated IDAHOT 2014 with an “express yourself” photo booth in Riga. Allies and families of LGBT activists constituted a big part of the crowd.

LGBT activists and their friends at MOSAIC organization invited community members and supporters to Riga on May 17 to express themselves however you want, in support of the LGBT community.

This year’s celebrations also included a photo session in the Old Town streets and at various key sites in Riga. The photo booth was made public on the internet via a hashtag campaign. The use of internet campaigning was symbolic in this case – designed to raise awareness of the fact that a significant level of homophobic and transphobic abuse takes place online.

The “Fotografēsimies” campaign showed that despite homophobic and transphobic expressions against LGBT people, and their friends and supporters, activists in Latvia manage to maintain a celebrating attitude towards life, and keep striving for a society in which all people are respected and treated as equal, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, national origin or religious belief.

Further information

• Mosaic Orgnization (in Latvian): Facebook page

In Hungary, the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organisation, IGLYO, organised an IDAHOT seminar in Budapest, together with partners. The organisation Háttér organised a seminar focused on human rights and the legal status of LGBTQI people. In Szeged, the organisation Colorful Circles also organised a seminar which aimed to sensibilise mainly people working in the educational sector to LGBTI related issues. In Budapest, the organisation Transvanilla also organised a one minute of noise against Homophobia and Transphobia, amongst other events in the country.

Transvanilla Shout Against Hate

Rather than holding one minute silence, activists making part of the trans* rights group Transvanilla decided to organise a One Minute’s Noise/Shout Against Hate for IDAHOT 2014. The action took place at the 5th European Transgender Council in Budapest on 3rd May 2014.

The organisers took a video of the action to make their noises and voices heard worldwide, which you can see here:

LGBTI Young People from across Europe join for Budapest Conference

The IDAHOT seminar “Young People’s responses to Homophobic and Transphobic Hate Speech” was hosted at European Youth Center in Budapest. In the framework of the No Hate Speech Movement, this seminar took place from the 15th to the 17th and was organised by  IGLYO  in cooperation with the Council of Europe Equality Division (SOGI Unit) and the European Youth Center Budapest. In order for everyone around the world to follow the seminar, organisers live streamed the event. The seminar aimed to identify and discuss Hate Speech against LGBTI people, and to develop strategies to tackle it. As the organisers explained prior to the event:

‘During the seminar and in the movement there will be prepared some actions to be implemented by activists all over Europe. The aim of the seminar is, amongst others, to get people and organisations not used to work with LGBTQI issues to take the next step towards human rights for all… The topic of IDAHOT “Freedom of Expression” is very relevant when talking about Hate Speech. It’s a question of how you use your freedom of expression. Do you use it to promote human rights and social cohesion or to spread hate and dehumanise LGBTQI?’

On May 17, the activists at the European Youth Centre in Budapest had launched an online action hour against Homophobic and Transphobic Hate speech. The action hour was live from the IGLYO and Council of Europe’s seminar “Young People’s responses to Homophobic and Transphobic Hate Speech” and invited everyone to use their Right to Freedom of Expression and to speak up for Human Rights for all. The main message of the online action was that Homophobic and Transphobic Hate Speech is a direct threat to freedom of expression and the human right to freedom of speech for everyone.

Love is a Human Right !

Also on May 17 there was also the action SZABAD A CSÓK! which included a party, photo exhibition with the title ‘Love is a Human Right’. Additionally, the organiser Háttér had also hosted a seminar about the situation of LGBTQI people in Hungary and Human Rights. The issue of right-wing forces pushing against LGBTI equality and the legal status of LGBTQI communities formed a major part of the discussions. There was also a report presented which highlighted two major problem areas; also highlighted as part of a seminar. One concerned the educational system in relation to sexual and gender minorities, and the other, the uncertain legal status of same-sex couples raising children. The seminar took place on May 16 at the Central European University in Budapest.

Katalin Szajbély . Source: Háttér

Colourful Circles Training Event

Colourful Circles hosted a training which had the aim was to make participants more open to the situation of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) minorities, particularly concerning education and school situations. The key issues were human rights, freedom, justice, equality, human dignity, democracy, rights, interdependence, solidarity, stereotype, prejudice, minority and majority identity, homophobia, coming out, hetero-sexism, and LGBT themes in general. The event took place on May 17 in Szeged and was mainly aimed at teachers.

Colourful Circles Event Poster

The 5-day seminar, will be held from the 14th – 18th May, in Budapest, Hungary.

The goal of the event is to develop responses to Homophobic and Transphobic Hate Speech affecting Young People.

Organisers explained: ‘During the seminar and in the movement there will be prepared some actions to be implemented by activists all over Europe. The aim of the seminar is, amongst others, to get people and organisations not used to work with lgbtqi issues to take the next step towards human rights for all… The topic of IDAHOT “Freedom of Expression” is very relevant when talking about Hate Speech. It’s a question of how you use your freedom of expression. Do you use it to promote human rights and social cohesion or to spread hate and dehumanize lgbtqi?’

They also added: ‘The seminar will explore the challenges faced by young people who are targeted by hate speech because of their sexual orientation and gender identity and how to develop adequate responses to such homophobic and transphobic expressions.’

Applications to participate in the conference should be submitted by April 7, 2014.

For more information (including applications) please see this page on the IGLYO site.

After all, these messages threaten our integrity as human beings and reinforce the idea that LGBT people are fair targets for humiliation and attack!

A group of activists from Uruguay – the Ovejas Negras (Black Sheep) collective – created a great project to challenge this. They invited people to send pictures of graffiti or writings against LGBT people which could be found on the street or in their workplace or school. Loads of people sent in images from their cameras or cellphones, via social media.

The group then created a photo montage of them all (some are pictured above), and created a whole album here. They also used the contributions to produce a short video about homophobia, transphobia and lesbophobia in Uruguay (released for May 17 2013).

The video got over 10,000 views and the group got loads of positive feedback from teachers in particular who found it a useful tool to open up discussion about discrimination.

You can check out the video here:

And here’s one of the posters they created to help get the word out:

Another great example from Egypt:

pro-LGBT activists transformed “an anti-gay mural on Mohamed Mahmoud Street in Cairo, which took a swing at the city’s cops calling them gay.

” Activists altered the homophobic graffiti to promote a pro-gay message. A young Arab woman, Leil Zahra Mortada, later shared the before and after photos of the mural (below) on Facebook, which caused much discussion and debate on LGBT issues