International Day Against Homophobia.

The International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) was created to complement the Queer Pride events held around the world to celebrate pride in oneself and in their sexuality (sexual orientation) and gender identity, whatever they may be. IDAHO looks at this issue from another angle as it is held to highlight: "... that in reality it is homophobia that is shameful and must be deconstructed in its social logic and fought against openly." IDAHO is held annually on the 17th of May around the world. The 17th of May was chosen for IDAHO, as it commenorates the 17 May 1990, when the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders. (Taken from Wikipedia on 14th May, 2007.)

Taken from GCN.ie

So, what is Homophobia? For those who haven't seen this word before, Wikipedia describes Homophobia is the irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Sometimes homophobia has been used to cover the same kind of feelings/reactions towards people who have alternate gender identities (eg a person who's physical gender is one gender, say male and they feel that inside their actual, phychological gender is the opposite, in this case female. Such a person may or may not take hormones and have surgey to correct their external gender to match what they feel they are inside.) If you'd like to read more, one good place to start is the Homophobia page on Wikipedia, that has a variety of external links. It's pretty heavy going and a bit on the theoretical side, so I'll see if I can find some more information at a later date.

Sexualities and Gender Identities that are alternate to the "mainstream" are contentious issues internationally. There are a variety of viewpoints, theories and perspectives based on such things as science, religion, culture, morality, personal opinion, philosophy and psychology that fuel this contention (and I'm sure that the people who are reading this blog have a variety of opinions). These viewpoints range from the perspective that people should be free to express the gender that they feel they truly are inside and express who they love to the perspective that, for a variety of reasons, the only right sexuality and gender identity are heterosexuality and those people whose physical gender matches their internal gender identity (ie a man who feels inside that he is a man).

As I'm here to raise awareness of the International Day Against Homophobia, you may be able to guess which perspective is my own. I'm not going to try to relate in detail the viewpoint of people who don't agree with the perspective that people should be free to express alternate sexualities and gender identities, as I don't feel that I could truly and without bias represent those perspectives. I would love to hear people's thoughts and opinions on this topic though, so please either email me or post them here. If there are opinions posted here, I would ask people to be respectful of difference in the way they post their opinions and/or respond to what other people say.

Whether or not you'd like to post your thoughts, as the International Day Against Homophobia draws closer, I would ask people to explore their thoughts in regards to gender identity and sexuality. Where do your thoughts, values and opinions come from? Are they from family, friends, people you have met or your own personality or do they come from something broader such as politics, science, research, religion, moral codes, culture or the media? I'm sure that your thoughts on this issue will be related to a combination of two or more of these things.

If you're interested in discussing or debating this issue further, I would also ask you to explore why people think the way they do, where their thoughts, values and opinions come from. I would also like you to ask yourself what it means to love some one, what is important about the person you love, both to you and to those around you, and what is it that makes you a man or a woman or something else in between.

For any issue that is contentious, such as this one, its can be a great process to look inside yourself and think about what has brought you to believe what you believe and why others think differently. At the very least, you'll learn more about yourself in the process.

Anyway, bring on your thoughts. I'm happy to discuss anything with yall and to clarify any points in this post. Finally, I would like to acknowledge that most of the links in this post may have some bias, as wikipedia is user developed. If you have any other links, let me know.
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UPDATE: To find out more about what happened with the International Day Against Homophobia around the world, Google News can be a good start.

PS - Another significance event celebrated on the 17th of May is the national day of Norway, their constitution day. The 17th of May was the day that the constitution of Norway was signed in 1814. Happy 17th of May to all Norwegians who are reading!