The event featured young people from the LGBT community, as well as allies, occupying public spaces in a variety of ways. The aim of the event was to raise awareness around some of the discrimination-related issues facing the LGBT community, whilst also challenging perceptions over who and what the LGBT community are.

For more images from this event please visit Szemtõl Szembe’s facebook page.

More news will be announced as details are confirmed. Please follow our social media accounts for regular updates and news. 

The Transgender Association Transvanilla hosted a screening together with with TranszPont (a FB group for trans people and their allies) followed by a discussion on 14 May and organised an online campaign against Transphobia on May 17.

At the first event, the organisers screened the film Transgender Parents, a documentary about love, life and kids after a gender transition. It shares the struggles and strengths of several trans women and trans men navigating different stages of parenting: from pregnancy, through raising infants, toddlers and teenagers. Some, who transitioned prior to founding their families, experience fertility clinics and hospital births; others, who transitioned in the presence of their kids work to renegotiate their identity and relationships within their families. All are openly out in the world as trans and as parents in ways that weren’t possible 20 years ago.
You can find more details about the event on May 14 here.

Transvanilla also organised an online campaign where they asked people to send in a picture of them with their message against Transphobia for IDAHOT. You can have a look at the images here.

Additionally, Amnesty International Hungary involved 10 Embassies in Budapest in a campaign with the slogan: ‘Your gender is your business. I only have to respect it.’ Find out you joint and more details here.

The American Ambassador sent her message on Facebook as she was not able to participate in the campaign.

Also in Budapest,  as part of the Face-to-Face campaign, Szemtől szembe and Stereo Akt organised a Flash mob and party on the International Day Against Homophobia.

Seven Minutes Utopia, Live Statue

Two people holding hands are passing you by, just an average couple in the street. Are you surprised? Surely not, you might even smile back to them. And what if this couple is two men or two women, would you smile the same way? We’ll see now.

On 17 May, on the International Day Against Homophobia we organized a flash mob with hundreds of volunteers with the title ‘Hand-in-Hand’. We’ve got an insight into a world in which it’s self-evident and natural that couples of the same sex are free to show their feelings. Although the flash mob was a one-time event, we hope that it made any other day of the LGB community a bit easier – as we all have the right to free love.

You can watch the video on their Facebook page.

Video about the flashmob and the meeting (Hungarian):

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.

Events by Transvanilla Transgender Association

Building upon the success of last year’s workshop addressing transphobia within the Hungarian LGB community and based on the need to continue this kind of initiatives, Transvanilla Transgender Association decided to organize another workshop this year. “We would like to draw attention to the general lack of visibility of trans people, including (or especially) in the “LGBT” community”, the organizers said in their statement.

Banner produced by Transvanilla for May 17 2013

The goal of the event was to find solutions to the following questions:

– How to increase the visibility and the acceptance of trans people in the LGB community?
– How can the Hungarian LGBT NGOs integrate trans people’s point of view into their work
– How can the Hungarian organisations provide a safe and welcoming environment to the trans community

Link to the organization’s website: http://transvanilla.hu

Transvanilla on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transvanilla

Demonstration at Budapest Houses of Parliament

Amnesty International Hungary, also organised a public event on May 17, outside the House of Parliamentarians in Budapest. They estimated that about 15,000 people were reached by messages about the event.

Local activists also reported that one mainstream television channel, and a couple of online news sites covered the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia in Hungary.

Media Reports:

http://velvet.hu/trend/hot0517/
http://www.origo.hu/nagyvilag/20130517-nem-setalnak-kezen-fogva-az-unios-melegek.html
http://hu.euronews.com/2013/05/17/meg-mindig-sok-a-melegek-elleni-eroszak-europaban/

Building upon the success of last year’s workshop addressing transphobia within the Hungarian LGB community and based on the need to continue this kind of initiatives, Transvanilla Transgender Association decided to organize another workshop this year.

“We would like to draw attention to the general lack of visibility of trans people, including (or especially) in the “LGBT” community”, the organizers say. There are people in the LGB community who seem not to accept trans people and their needs. Some of them may think that the T* community is far from the LGB movement, or even that their political goals and interest do not overlap. The apparent fear that the T* community jeopardizes social and political acceptance of gays and lesbians is a pressing issue that must be challenged.
The goal is to together find solutions to:
– how to increase the visibility and the acceptance of trans people in the LGB community
– how can the Hungarian LGBT NGOs integrate trans people’s point of view into their work
– how can the Hungarian organisations provide a safe and welcoming environment to the trans community
Link to the organization’s website: http://transvanilla.hu
The discussion is open and free, will be on 17 May 6PM in Bálint Ház, Budapest, VI. Révay utca 16
Link to the Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transvanilla
facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/486278394778754/
more info in hungarian: http://transvanilla.hu/home/70-idaho-t-2013

Nine Hungarian LGBT organizations were invited to discuss the issues, with the goal of finding solutions to the following challenges:

How to increase the visibility and acceptance of trans people in the LGB community;
How Hungarian LGBT NGOs can integrate trans people’s point of view into their work; and
How Hungarian organizations can provide a safe and welcoming environment for the trans community.