People all over the world have marked the 6th International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO). On May 17, 1990, the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. To mark the day, ILGA-Europe has launched an updated version of the Rainbow Europe Mapand added the Rainbow Europe Country Index. The Rainbow Europe Map reflects European countries' legislation which protects the human rights of and ensures equality for LGB people as well as laws and practices which discriminate against and violates the human rights of LGB people. The Rainbow Europe Country Map rates each European country on its legislation affecting the human rights of LGB people. The Map and Index do not reflect the situation for trans and intersex people in Europe. ILGA-Europe says it is working with Transgender Europe on identifying the categories and data collection which will enable to have such an overview. We expect to produce such map and index on trans and intersex issue in 2011. Co-chair of ILGA-Europe's executive board Martin Christensen says the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia is an appropriate occasion to revise the situation for LGB people in Europe. "The Rainbow Index is a great tool to monitor the development of the legal situation for LBG people in Europe and useful tool for our advocacy work." The only European country which scored 10 of 10 available positive is Sweden. Russia and Ukraine are on the bottom with a score of -2. GayRussia.RU says its nation marked IDAHO with complete indifference. It says no journalist attended the press conference it organised to celebrate the day for the first time in Russia, which was aimed at raising the awareness of homophobia. However NTV agreed to broadcast a programme Honest Monday which features an hour debate on the rights of sexual minorities. Leaders from the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission issued strong messages condemning homophobia, the first time that three top-level EU leaders address homophobia jointly and unequivocally. President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy reinforced the EU's commitment to refuse discrimination on any grounds, and affirming that "discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation has ceased to constitute a political cleavage, and is enshrined in the EU's founding act and statement of values." Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, issued a video message reaffirming the commitment of the European Parliament to combat any form of discrimination, including homophobia. Viviane Reding, Vice-president of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, also issued a statement condemning homophobia as "a blatant violation of human dignity", "incompatible with the principles on which the EU is founded". The IDAHO movement is not just in Europe, with church vigils held in Nigeria and Canada, while there was also action in Venezuela, New Caledonia and Australia. Americans are tying IDAHO in with what would have been the 80th birthday of Harvey Milk on May 22, holding an entire week of activities in Chicago.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 18th May 2010 - 8:32am