17 May is the International Day Against Homophobia

On 17 May 1990, the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders. The fight for the recognition of equal rights for lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people did not end there though.

Today around 80 countries in the world still criminalize homosexuality and condemn consensual same sex acts with imprisonment, of these 9 (Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen) still have the death penalty. And Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were elected last week as members of the recently created United Nations "Human Rights Commission"!!! (along with other human rights expert "champions" like Algeria, China, Cuba and Russia). Discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation and gender identity is still not recognized formally by the member states of the United Nations (even though human rights mechanisms such as the Human Rights Committee have repeatedly condemned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity). ILGA has been fighting against discrimination and for the recognition of equal rights of LGBT persons since its creation in 1978. ILGA is strongly committed to celebrating this second International Day Against Homophobia, launched one year ago by the International Day Against Homophobia Committee (IDAHO).

ILGA has created a 30-second video to celebrate this date. See it at ILGA's website.

In every country of the world, please pass the message: 17 May is the International Day Against Homophobia, it is of homophobia that you should be fearful, not homos!