Homophobia: May 17th was International Day against Homophobia

May 17th was the International Day against Homophobia. ILGA has chosen this time of the year to launch a report on State homophobia around the world to raise awareness of the extent of institutionalized homophobia around the world.

Download the report:
In English
In Spanish
In Portuguese
In French

The date of May 17 signals 1990, when the WHO (World Health Organisation or OMS in french) erased homossexuality as a mental illness, putting an end to "more than one century of medical homophobia", according to Louis-Georges Tin, president of the Idaho Committe (initiated this day). The association has taken as moto "no to homophobia, yes to education".

In 2007, still no less than 85 member states of the United Nations still criminalize consensual same sex acts among adults. Sometimes those countries make a distinction between lesbians which are more tolerated and male homossexuals, condemned. In no less than nine countries (Mauritania, Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen), consenting homossexual relations between consenting adults is condemned with death penalty! And it can lead to jail in Algeria, Morocco, Cameroun and Libya. All muslim countries. And the tendency is not for things to get better in those countries.

Luckily however, in the rest of teh world things are improving, in particular in Europe and Latin America (NOT the US). In many countries same-sex partnerships are being legalised and the legal repression of homophobia is getting ground.