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The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) is the single most important date for LGBT communities on global scale
The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) was first marked in 2004 to raise global awareness of the discrimination, persecution and violence faced by LGBT people around the world.
Observed every year on May 17, IDAHOT is the single most important date for LGBT communities to mobilize on a worldwide scale. In its fifth year, the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum marked the day by joining forces with the World Bank to call for inclusion and equality for families and their LGBT children around the world.
While 2017 was the first year that the Forum has come together to mark the day, it has had a long association with its organizers: IDAHOT president, Tamara Adrián has attended every session of the Forum since 2013, and in 2015 outreach communications officer for Latin America, Mariano Ruiz joined for the first time and has volunteered his expertise time and again to the Forum to further its own outreach, especially in Latin America.
“May 17 is the day where no matter what part of the world you are, you know that someone is taking action in [over 130] countries today,” says Ruiz.
For three years, the Forum has led the project “Family is…?” and the Forum unveiled the short film Family is…? A Global Conversation on May 17 to coincide with this year’s IDAHOT theme of “Family.” The film weaves together personal testimonies from Forum members from more than 25 countries about their families of birth, their families of choice and the families they raise.
As Adrián explained in Salzburg, “The choice of IDAHOT committee to celebrate families this year was largely because we talked about families during the last [Salzburg Global LGBT Forum session] in Thailand.”
The video message from the World Bank’s IDAHOT celebration in Thailand, featuring Clifton Cortez, Salzburg Global Fellow and the World Bank’s Global Adviser for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI), and Ulrich Zachau, World Bank Country Director for Southeast Asia, united both the World Bank and the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum behind IDAHOT’s message of family inclusion and reflects ongoing conversation between Cortez and Klaus Mueller on a closer cooperation on strengthening LGBT equality through education and economic inclusion.
The World Bank’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) team has a long-standing relationship with the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum. In addition to Cortez, who attended in both 2015 and 2016, several other members have participated in the Forum, including social development researchers Dominik Koehler (2017), Phil Crehan (2015) and Marko Karadzic (2013). Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank, also shares a deep relationship with Salzburg Global Seminar, crediting her participation in 1990 with changing her career trajectory, from a researcher in Bulgaria going on to work with the World Bank and previous to that with the European Commission, where she was Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Air and Crisis Response.
To celebrate these growing closer connections, and in the spirit of IDAHOT, LGBT Forum Fellows shared the message of “Family is Love” with the World Bank, in support of its efforts to support greater inclusion of LGBT people around the world.
World Bank and Salzburg Global LGBT Forum mark IDAHOT
Mariano Ruiz on IDAHOT and an international call to action