International Day Against Homophobia Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) takes place every year on May 17.
IDAHOBIT is a worldwide celebration of sexual and gender diversity.
The theme for 2024 is 'No one left behind: equality, freedom and justice for all.'
Helen Goodson, a peer support worker based in the gender identity clinic reflects on what this year's theme means to her.
The world has just celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a document that is much more than a cornerstone of international law, it is a guide to navigate a deeply divided world, a set of values that everyone can live by, and ultimately a force for good.
And yet, we know that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” represents a promise not yet fulfilled – for LGBTIQ people across the world, and for everyone experiencing the suffocating impact on their lives of diverse layers of inequalities.
How many of us know what our rights are as humans living on this little rock in a vast universe? We might know some of them or have heard of some of them, but what do they mean to us?
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights lists 30 rights, that all human beings should have an inherent right to:
How many of these rights did you know? If you are like me, you might have been able to say a few of them and when reading them they may seem familiar to you, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you exactly.
Thinking about the above rights they all start with ‘everyone’ ‘all’ or ‘we’ without exception and not with ‘some humans are’. As the very first right says, ‘all human beings are born free and equal’.
In the poem Man was made to mourn, Robert Burns wrote:
“Man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands mourn”.
These few words in this poem seem to sum up a lot of what is wrong in the world.
Despite the protections put in place by the UDHR, some people seem hell-bent on ignoring these and seem to want to be on a course of destruction towards other peoples' human rights, where many will mourn what we have lost.
Perhaps there is a better way - a way where everyone can be themselves - and this right is not only observed but celebrated for the quality of what it means to be human.
Sadly, we don’t live in a utopian world, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could.
Where a trans person could express themselves as they wished without fear, or who’s very existence is no longer debated so publicly and detrimentally.
Or a gay couple could hold hands or share a simple act of love with a kiss in public, without prejudice.
Yes, wouldn’t it be nice if we could just do these things without interference from members of the public or people in positions of power.
I don’t want to mourn anymore. I want to celebrate our diverse humanity. There is humanity to all people, if you are only willing to look.
