A Not So Private IDAHO
To whom much is given, much is expected. That musty chestnut - so often used during the inevitable champagne toast that occurs at charitable events - could well apply to U.S.-based LGBTs.
To be fair, we’ve certainly got our share of things to complain about: a lack of workplace discrimination protection throughout most of the country; a paltry handful of states where same sex marriage can legally take place; volunteer soldiers asked to serve on foreign battlefields yet denied the right to declare their sexuality; all that, plus "Will & Grace" continues in reruns, bereft of protest from Christian conservatives and card-carrying gays alike. Depressing.
A 5-year plan
’s sobering to remember, then, that our legitimate problems pale in comparison to the hate and violence occurring daily in parts of the world where those who live openly as anything other than heterosexual are met with hate and violence - often with little or no repercussions.
So what can U.S.-based LGBTs and their straight allies do? For starters, mark May 17th on your calendar. That’s the date on which, since 2005, the The International Day Against Homophobia, which uses the acronym IDAHO, has sought to raise awareness and compel ongoing global actions in the fight against hatred and misunderstanding.
Louis-Georges Tin is founder of IDAHO, author of the Dictionary of Homophobia and Spokesperson/VP of CRAN, the French/Black Coalition. He began work on the project in 2004 and held the first IDAHO on May 17, 2005 - "fifteen years to the day after the World Health Organization decided to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders." This year, the day is being celebrated in more than 50 countries around the world.
Still in its relative infancy compared to other world observation efforts (such as Earth Day), IDAHO’s passionate and persistent advocacy has already yielded results.
"Our most important campaign, perhaps, started on May 17, 2006," explained Tin. "We decided to fight for a universal decriminalization of homosexuality." With the support of high profile people such as Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky, Meryl Streep and Elton John, IDAHO managed to "push the French government to endorse the campaign, and bring it to the United Nations. The statement was signed by 67 states" and, most recently, by President Obama.
Although a significant achievement in the realm of international LGBT rights activism, Tin points out that "more than 70 countries in the world regard homosexuality as a crime, which is horrible; but it means that 120 don’t, which is a source of hope. Officially, we have a majority in the UN. But many of the countries which do not criminalize don’t want to take sides. This is our challenge."
To meet that challenge, IDAHO has crafted an ambitious 5-year plan (whose goals and proposed methods of achieving them can be found, in detail, on their website). As for filtering their activist efforts through UN-based legislation, a hopeful Tin points out that "we have to exert pressure on a national level, on all the states that criminalize homosexuality."
Although he acknowledges the sparse chances of LGBT rights being legislated and embraced by the likes of Iran or Saudi Arabia, Tin points out that "with countries like Lebanon or India, which are supposed to be real democracies, pressure from the UN might be a significant help for local organizations, and lead to decriminalization in a few years. It does not mean homophobia will be history, but at least organizations will have a right to exist, and then they will be able to fight against stigma and work for equal rights without being sent to jail."
