Thursday, May 17, 2012

IDAHO -- stand up against homophobia and transphobia!

DSC_1143
Yepp, 17 of May is the IDAHO -- nah, not that one, it's a different one. Symbolic date? Exactly. May 17 was chosen as the day of the event because homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization on May 17, 1990. Since then, there are several examples of the diversity of approaches and actions that organisations engage in. One thing is common: those who participate think that it is an opportunity to raise your voice, send a message and fight for human rights -- a never-ending struggle? Arising from prejudice and ignorance, homophobia and transphobia can affect LGBTQ people’s lives in many ways. Every day, members of the LGBTQ community face disapproving comments, verbal attacks, hate speech, and physical violence, simply because their gender identity and/or sexual orientation is not what is accepted by the mainstream society. What's more in case of Hungary -- declarations of homophobia and transphobia can be heard even in the Parliament. And at this rate, Budapest Police’s practice of banning the pride march every year will soon become a Hungarian national tradition... nice.

DSC_1105

Let's see how we celebrated IDAHO in Budapest! Organized by a couple of NGOs (including Budapest Pride, Amnesty International Hungary, Háttér Support Society for LGBT People, Labrisz Lesbian Association, the Hungarian LGBT Alliance and TransVanilla Transgender Association)
 the event took place at Deák tér from 4 pm and there were numerous programs. You can read the official press realease partly written by me (link here), you know I am one of the organizers of the Budapest Pride. What you could choose: support the Budapest Pride March with a video message, make sidewalk art with us, sign the Baltic Pride petition of the Amnesty International or join a discussion about transphobia held in Café Vis Major. The key is to say NO somehow.

I could not attend the discussion, but I spent two hours at Deák tér by interviewing strangers what they think about the pride march in general, if they plan to attend this year's etc. We recorded a number of speakers for this video of support. Besides one extreme homophobe guy, all the answers were relevant and instructive ...and I have to tell you my favorite one: I asked a middle-aged women who took her kids why she thought it was important to attend the event -- and what she replied was soooo encouraging -- she said that she wanted her children to be raised in a society in which same-sex couples were just as usual as hetero ones. Lovely!

DSC_1129

Friday, May 4, 2012

St. Petersburg's propaganda law in reality

I have already written a couple of posts about what is going on in St. Petersburg and what this propaganda law is about. Well, it did come into force and now we have the first guy (a hardcore lgbtq campaigner) to be convicted of ‘gay propaganda’. 

According to the report of the AP, Nikolai Alekseev was said to have been fined 5,000 roubles, just over £100, by a court in Russia’s second city for the promotion of homosexuality among minors... So, what did he do? As the news and the article by PinkNews (link here) highlight, Alekseev had held up a sign reading “Homosexuality is not a perversion” outside the Smolny Institute in April in public view. Shame on him, nah?! 


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

On the Spot in Egypt - Amnesty International Women's Group

As you may know, I am one of the founders of the Women's Group at the Amnesty International Hungary. We already arranged and participated in some events dealing with human rights issues, especially about women's rights. (for example the cookie action on women's day -- if you don't remember, you can read back, link here). So, while Amnesty is famous for lobbying, we regularly organize events which obviously have awareness raising campaigns, but we also want to "entertain". Ok, this is not the expression I was looking for, but the aim is to show an aspect of a certain country, territory or a specific case. We want to involve, invite, inform etc.

Last Wednesday we organized an event dealing with Egypt. The title "Denial and Repression" refers to the actual situation of women. The event itself was organized at Fogasház (oh yeah, I'm in love with ruin bars so it is not that surprising that I wanted to have it there). Program: film screening with a talk afterwards.

photo-1

So, Egypt. On the Spot. What's this? It is is a documentary run by two young Hungarian people in her twenties, Cseke Eszter and S. Takács Andris. We invited Eszter to tell about her personal experience and to give us a broader picture of what the life is like there. The Egyptian episode was shot a year ago when a series of civil demonstrations took place against the Mubarak regime -- millions of protesters from various social, economic or even religious background demanded the overthrow of the regime... but since then, the life of an everyday men has not changed much. 


The audience was larger than we expected (at least larger than I expected...), approximately 60-70 people attended and they were pretty much curious, asked a lot of questions, so it was a nice surprise (for me). And of course, who does not like watching a movie and talking about human rights issues while drinking beer at a ruin bar? :)

photo

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More