KENILWORTH, 31 MARCH 2006 — The International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) was inaugurated on 17 May 2005. It was decided to mark the day every year on 17 May because that was the date that the World Health Organization finally removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1990. IDAHO has been recognised by the European Parliament and has the support of many gay activists worldwide.
Early in 2005, the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) was invited by IDAHO’s founder, the French gay activist Louis-Georges Tin, to co-ordinate IDAHO in the UK and it has arranged and funded a public launch meeting due to take place from 6.00 to 8.00 pm on Friday 7 April 2006 at Amnesty International UK’s Human Rights Action Centre, 17–25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA. (Detailed directions are provided on the Amnesty International UK website.)
The meeting will begin with a welcome address given by Amnesty UK’s secretary, Linda Wilkinson, and the keynote speaker will be Louis-Georges Tin who will explain how and why he devised IDAHO, and how events were organised in over 40 countries last year with no funding and no staff. He will give an overview of homophobia worldwide and is also expected to give an update on the situation regarding Moscow Pride.
Another speaker will be Michael Cashman, former actor and now the Labour MEP for the West Midlands. Michael, who is one of GALHA’s staunchest supporters, is President of the Intergroup on gay and lesbian rights, in the European Parliament. During an impassioned debate in the European Parliament earlier this year he said “I am gay. I am homosexual, born to an ordinary man and woman. Because of that some people will wish to take away my right to talk about my sexuality, to celebrate my 22-year-old relationship and to be part of a wider community. Where is the morality in preaching and promoting discrimination and hatred, hiding behind the shield and excuse of religion or belief?” Michael Cashman will speak about homophobia in Europe and his work in the European Parliament to counter it.
Other speakers will be Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon who is also a GALHA supporter, Jean Lambert, Green Party MEP for London, and Jason Pollock, Chief Executive of Europride who will preview the Pride and Prejudice Conference on Human Rights which takes place in June 2006.
The meeting will be rounded off by a dramatisation based on an excerpt from Rex Batten’s book Rid England of this Plague – a terrifying and vivid eye-witness account of the 1950s purge of gays in the UK.