International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) is celebrated every year on May 17^th. This date was chosen to mark the day because it was in May 17^th in 1990 when homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization.

The day is coordinated by the Paris-based IDAHO committee. By 2010 the organization and the IDAHO day had been fully and officially recognized by the EU parliament, Belgium, the UK, Mexico, Costa Rica, The Netherlands, France, Luxemburg, Spain, and Brazil. In addition, in many countries like Argentina, Italy, Bolivia, and Croatia the day has been recognized by cities and regional governments…  In many countries, unfortunately, homosexuality is still largely taboo or under dispute. According to the IDAHO website only eleven countries around the world recognize same sex marriage rights, and in 76 countries it is still legal to prosecute a person based on their sexual orientation.

International Day Against Homophobia is usually a rallying event where people around the world come together to support the cause, as well as each other, in various different ways. The day is about unity in spirit and diversity in expression. International Day Against Homophobia aims to mobilize public opinion, draw media attention to issues surrounding homophobia, and to network and create partnerships between organizations. The United Nations, for example, supports the IDAHO movement through UNAIDS. According to the UNAIDS website, “Homophobia is considered one of the main obstacles in implementing HIV prevention strategies.”

Various ways that you can celebrate and participate to the International Day Against Homophobia, are listed at the IDAHO website.

Also in May:

World No-Tobacco Day – May 31st

International Day for UN Peacekeepers – May 29th

Africa Day – May 25th

The Day of Cyrillic Alphabet – May 24th

International Day for Biological Diversity – May 22nd

Cultural Diversity Day – May 21st

Cultural Diversity Day: A Special ‘Hello!’

World Telecommunications and Information Society Day – May 17th

Mastering the Art of Cheek Kissing

International Day of Families – May 15th

World Fair Trade Day – May 12th

Red Cross Crescent Day – May 8th

Europe Day – May 9th

Wesak – May 5th

World Press Freedom Day – May 3rd

May Day – May 1st

Tags: homophobia, IDAHO, sexual orientation, UNAIDS, WHO

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 at 10:00 am and is filed under days of significance, expat advice . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.