On May 17, 1990, homosexuality was eliminated as a disease by the WHO (World Health Organization). Twenty-eight years have passed since then, and members of the LGBTI community are still subjected to various forms of abuse. The only way to combat homotransphobia is to KNOW!!!
It starts on Monday 14 May "“#OmophobiaStop: VI Week Against Homotransphobia”, the great week organized by Arcigay Livorno, AGEDO Livorno – Toscana in network with the Tavolo Livorno Rainbow. Many initiatives will be taking place throughout the city of Livorno this year. The week opens with the presentation series with author Love&Pride with the book by Camilla Vivian, MY SON IN PINK at the Feltrinelli in Livorno, presented by Fiorenzo Gimelli, National President of AGEDO. The second event scheduled for May 17th will take place in Cecina on Viale Marconi with the sixth edition of the flash-mob against homotransphobia entitled “BE PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE”; it continues with the last Love&Pride meeting, May 18th, with the presentation of Veronica Barsotti's book, I WANTED TO BE BLONDE at the literary bar Le Cicale Operose, in Corso Amedeo in Livorno. The week will close with the events of Saturday evening, May 19th, FA'AFAFINE, at Il Grattacielo Arts Center, a theatrical performance that tells the story of a child's discovery of self and gender identity; and on Sunday, May 20th, with the traditional and engaging flash mob at the Terrazza Mascagni starting at 6:00 PM.
“"It's time to return to the streets," comments Luca Mazzinghi, President of Arcigay Livorno, "to reaffirm our pride. The celebration of May 17th, despite being a long-standing tradition in our country, never loses its strength and necessity. Just read the newspapers reporting on preparations across Italy in recent weeks: there are reports of controversy, counter-demonstrations, reparatory processions, and palace brawls. And at the same time, from countries more or less distant from our own, we hear stories of LGBTI people being persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and killed. As in Chechnya, but unfortunately not only there. There is a homophobic, transphobic culture, far from residual, that seeks to marginalize, exclude, or target people who do not conform to the models of compulsory heterosexuality and gender binarism. When this culture is a minority, it produces reparatory processions; when it is a majority, it leads to concentration camps and persecution: the link between these two events must be denounced unambiguously, and it is our duty to do so." to counter them, to put our Resistance into action, understood not as the memory of something that was, but as a necessary, contemporary, urgent practice.”
“"But May 17th is also a day of pride," continues Rita Rabuzzi, President of AGEDO Livorno – Tuscany, "and for many LGBTI boys and girls, it's the opportunity to make themselves visible in public spaces, often for the first time, for who they are: an extraordinary event in the lives of each of them, their families, and their friends. Each of these stories makes commemorative events essential every year and in every city.
Resistance, Pride, and finally, Struggle—conclude the two representatives of the associations—for full equality among all, for equal marriage, and for the recognition of all forms of family through which our society strengthens and grows. For the recognition of same-sex families and for a parenting policy that finally puts the rights of boys and girls at the center, safe from the ideological incursions of adults. Struggle for the self-determination of bodies and to combat homotransphobia and all forms of violence that permeate our daily lives. Struggle for the right to health, work, welfare, education, and acceptance, without stigma or discrimination, respecting the dignity of all. For all of this, starting Monday, we launch:“#OmophobiaStop: "VI Week Against Homophobia"”
For all information, please consult the social media of the two associations or the website www.arcigaylivorno.it.[:]
