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Mormon apostle Ballard to keynote next month’s World Congress of Families gathering in Utah

03/09/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By PEGGY FLETCHER STACK | The Salt Lake Tribune connect
First Published Sep 01 2015 11:39AM

(Rick Egan | Tribune file photo) Elder M. Russell Ballard speaks in the 185th Annual LDS General Conference Priesthood Session in April.

(Rick Egan | Tribune file photo) Elder M. Russell Ballard speaks in the 185th Annual LDS General Conference Priesthood Session in April.


 
Mormon apostle M. Russell Ballard will be a keynote speaker at next month’s meeting of the World Congress of Families, an international organization billing itself as “the largest gathering of pro-family advocates in the world,” the group announced Tuesday.
The World Congress of Families IX, which will be staged in Salt Lake City from Oct. 27 to 30, promotes what it calls “the natural family — meaning a man and a woman rearing children — and believes the LDS Church’s 1995 document “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” supports that view.
Ballard defended the Utah-based faith’s proclamation in 2005, saying, “It was then and is now a clarion call to protect and strengthen families and a stern warning in a world where declining values and misplaced priorities threaten to destroy society by undermining [the family which is] … the basic unit of society, of the economy, of our culture, and of our government.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “has long been a strong ally to the World Congress of Families,” Janice Shaw Crouse, a member of the board of directors of WCF and executive director of the World Congress of Families IX, said in a news release, “and it is an honor to have one of its senior apostles speak at our conference — particularly someone whose lifelong commitment and leadership have been to preserve and strengthen the family unit.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center, however, has declared the World Congress to be a “hate group” for fostering homophobia under the guise of protecting families.
“Many of those who claim the designation of pro-family are actually not,” Mark Lawrence, who heads the group Restore Our Humanity, said in May. “Many of them claim that families must meet a very narrow and restrictive definition.”
Local gay and allied groups will host their own Inclusive Families Conference, scheduled for Oct. 23-24, at the University of Utah.
WCF officials balk at the hate-group allegation, saying they are “not ‘anti’ anything.” Members, they say, are simply people of faith who celebrate the natural family and focus on how to make families stronger.
pstack@sltrib.com
Twitter: @religiongal

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia Tagged With: Ballard, Mormon apostle, World Congress of Families

Op-ed: The Story Behind the First LGBT History Month

03/09/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

advocate_logoBY ORIGINAL LGBT HISTORY MONTH COMMITTEE MEMBERS

SEPTEMBER 02 2015 4:30 AM ET

 

Four academic leaders describe how LGBT History Month was launched, amid stiff resistance, more than two decades ago

Rodney Wilson

Rodney Wilson


In August, The Advocate ran an op-ed that seemed to suggest that LGBT History Month was founded a mere decade ago. As those who were there at the start, more than two decades ago, we’d like to set the record “straight.”
In January 1994, a suburban St. Louis high school history teacher, Rodney Wilson, suggested that LGBT history — like women’s history and African-American history — needed a month devoted to its study. But which month? Pride Month, June, would not work because school was out, and other months were spoken for by other groups. But October was free of conflicts, came during the academic year, and serendipitously was the month of both the first and second LGBT Marches on Washington (1979 and 1987) and National Coming Out Day (October 11). He selected October and a draft proposal was written.
Johnda Boyce, a graduate student in women’s studies at Ohio State University and Wilson’s best friend from college, was the first to learn of the idea. After her input, a revised proposal was sent — via postal mail (!) — to organizations, community notables, education and advocacy groups, and potential supporters and historians all over the country.
One copy landed on a desk of the Gerber/Hart Library and Archive in Chicago. Another found its way to the office of the nascent Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers’ Network (now GLSEN). Kevin Boyer, of Gerber/Hart, and Kevin Jennings, founder of GLSEN, joined Wilson, Boyce, Jessea Greenman of the University of California, Berkeley, and Torey Wilson, a suburban Chicago history teacher, on the first LGBT History Month Coordinating Committee. (It was then called LG History Month. Adding a “B” to the official name happened only after heated debate, and at that time, there was no thought of adding a “T.”)
With the institutional backing of Gerber/Hart and a lot of hard work by members of the national coordinating committee, endorsements came rolling in. The governors of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Oregon made official proclamations recognizing October as LGBT History Month. All the LGBT civil rights and education and advocacy organizations of the day came on board: Project 10 (and its founder Virginia Uribe), GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, Gay & Lesbian Americans, NGLTF, and, of course, GLSEN. Endorsements arrived from esteemed historians like Jonathan Ned Katz, William A. Percy (chair of the American Historical Association’s Caucus for Gay and Lesbian History), George Chauncey, and Martin Duberman (who sent his endorsement on a hand-written postcard). From the beginning, Windy City Timessyndicated columnist Paul Varnell gave the movement his pen and wrote eloquently of LGBT History Month every October until his death in 2011.
For $5, the committee mailed out packets of material with history month curriculum suggestions for secondary schools, colleges and universities, and community groups. Packet after packet after packet were mailed out of Gerber/Hart library. That first October, Jennings’s GLSEN sponsored a history conference in Boston attended by 200 educators and keynoted by Eric Marcus, author ofMaking Gay History. The history department at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, where Wilson was a graduate student, sponsored a month-long LGBT history film festival. News stories started to appear; a few teachers had their history month displays taken down by school districts; some parents approved and many others did not. But many schools, colleges, and universities ran with the idea, and October was cemented in the community’s mind as LGBT History Month.
In time for the second annual celebration in October 1995, LGBT History Month had received mainstream coverage in Newsweek magazine. But early efforts weren’t without controversy.
When Wilson and the Gay and Lesbian Caucus of the National Education Association pressed for and received an endorsement of LGBT History Month, the backlash was enormous. Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum and Beverly LaHaye’s Concerned Women for America bought full-page ads in newspapers condemning the NEA and scaring parents: “It [LGBT History Month] may be celebrated at your school before the month is over. Please call now. This must be stopped.”
Under pressure, NEA delegates at the 1996 Representative Assembly voted to remove specific mention of all history months from their resolutions, even long-established Black History Month and Women’s History Month. NEA was and remains a strong LGBT ally, but history month celebrations are still encouraged only generically.
Over the next 10 years, LGBT History Month continued to grow organically, without need of centralized organization. Hundreds of colleges and universities, community libraries, and even some high schools faithfully commemorated October as LGBT History Month — and still do.
Since 1994, the LGBT community and its history have become more mainstream. Community-based history projects and archives now stand alongside major collections at universities, city libraries and museums, not to mention historical inclusion in film, radio, documentaries and books. In 2006, Philadelphia’s Equality Forum created LGBTHistoryMonth.com, a website that highlights 31 diverse icons each year to help drive a national LGBT history conversation. And many cities throughout the USA officially commemorate LGBT History Month.
We who were there at the beginning are proud of what we created, and we look forward to this October’s celebrations that will mark a very healthy tradition now in its 22nd year. Happy Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History Month 2015!
—Four of the six original LGBT History Month Committee Members: Rodney Wilson, Kevin Boyer, Johnda Boyce, Kevin Jennings
 
RODNEY WILSON founded LGBT History Month and GLSEN-St. Louis. He was the first openly gay K-12 teacher in Missouri and wrote the first history of gay St. Louis to be published by the Missouri Historical Society. After many years teaching in Massachusetts, in 2011 he returned home to Missouri, where he teaches at a community college and produces independent films for Circa87.
KEVIN BOYER was chair of the Gerber/Hart board of directors in 1994. He went on to cofound the Chicago LGBT Chamber of Commerce, was CMO of the 2006 Chicago Gay Games, and was elected to the Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame. Today he works in marketing for tech agencies and start-ups.
JOHNDA BOYCE is a staff attorney at Legal Services of Southern Missouri, in Springfield, Mo. She sits on the board of her local PFLAG chapter and volunteers for campaigns to add LGBT protections to local nondiscrimination ordinances.
KEVIN JENNINGS is the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, served as assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education during President Obama’s first term, and today serves as executive director of the Arcus Foundation.

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia, History Tagged With: LGBT History Month, The Advocate

New project at Atlanta museum focuses on LGBT civil rights

03/09/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUBLISHED: 00:44, 3 September 2015 | UPDATED: 00:44, 3 September 2015

 
civil right museum (1)ATLANTA (AP) — Leaders of an Atlanta museum want the space focused on modern and historic civil rights to contribute to a national push to ensure LGBT rights, particularly in southern states.
Wednesday marked the formal launch of the LGBT Institute, housed at the Center for Civil and Human Rights less than 15 months after the museum opened.
The museum includes galleries on LGBT issues and connects its history to the civil rights movement. But officials heard from LGBT organizations and individuals who wanted more, and they began planning the new project last fall.
LGBT Institute interim executive director Ryan Roemerman said organizers hope to perform research in cooperation with universities and host events connecting independent groups already working on LGBT rights beyond same-sex marriage.
“It’s the perfect time and the perfect place to shine a spotlight on issues that don’t often get a platform,” Roemerman said.
The project’s programming board members are a mix of researchers and people with a background in personal or professional LGBT advocacy. Member Tracee McDaniel, who founded the Juxtaposed Center for Transformation and identifies as a transgender woman of color, said she’s pleased with the group’s diverse members and the Center for Civil and Human Rights’ involvement.
“It lets other people know that this is about human rights for all people — whatever identity you have or labels others associate with you,” she said.
Tim’m West, a board member, said the LGBT Initiative will address a broad variety of issues.
“Marriage does not make life wonderful for all,” said West, a gay man who works with Teach for America to improve classroom environments for LGBT students. “For some, it’s the one box to check. For others, there are four or five more that we need to work on.”
Details still are in the works, but organizers have settled on three broad areas of focus: education and employment, public health and wellness, and criminal justice and safety. A new exhibit inside the museum details Atlanta’s LGBT community since a 1969 police raid of a New York bar sparked the Stonewall Inn riots, considered the start of the modern gay rights movement.
This summer’s Supreme Court ruling establishing same-sex marriage has prompted organizations working on LGBT rights to focus on “lived equality,” said Beth Littrell, an Atlanta-based senior attorney for Lambda Legal. Littrell said LGBT people may be discriminated against for their gender identity or sexuality, but also feel targeted for their race or income.
“We’re all, to a certain extent, underfunded and under-resourced,” Littrell said. “Having a space that is dedicated to highlighting injustices in all incarnations can only help us become a stronger community.”
__
Kathleen Foody can be followed at http://twitter.com/katiefoody
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3220068/New-project-Atlanta-museum-focuses-LGBT-civil-rights.html#ixzz3kfMQ7DR6

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia, History Tagged With: Atlanta Museum, Center for Civil and Human Rights, lgbt history

A neo-Nazi group in Ukraine have destroyed an LGBT+ organisation’s office and almost killed a man in the process.

03/09/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

 
Gay Times Logo
 

11:00 2nd September 2015 by Dean Eastmond

Queer Home Kryvbas, the only LGBT group in Kryvyi Rih that openly welcomes the gay community, was attacked by six masked men with iron poles and fire sticks on Sunday night. The masked figures threw smoke bombs inside the office while seven victims were allegedly trapped inside.

One man tried stopping the attackers, but was beaten savagely and is now in hospital with a concussion.Gay_Ukraine_Nazi_Attack

A spokesperson from Gay Alliance Ukraine said: “One of the main functions of the state is to protect its citizens.

“Gay Alliance Ukraine appeals to the law enforcement authorities with the demand to not only to punish the guilty in these two incidents, but to also do everything in their power to protect the lives, health and basic rights of the citizens of Ukraine.”

The incident came a day after 20 neo-Nazis descended on a cafe in Kryvyi Rih to attack a group of gay men.

The swell of neo-Nazi groups and extremist views spreading across Ukraine has posed an immediate risk to the country’s LGBT community – as well as the larger society. Yesterday, three policemen were killed after violent clashes between security forces and ultra-nationalist protesters.

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia Tagged With: LGBT, neo-Nazi, Ukraine

Gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia: 3 charts that show what Catholics and Protestants really think about the moral issues dividing Christianity

01/09/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Belfast Telegraph logoPUBLISHED31/08/2015

Catholics more liberal towards gay marriage than Protestants

Catholics more liberal towards gay marriage than Protestants

Catholics have a more liberal attitude towards gay marriage than Protestants – but are more conservative when it comes to euthanasia and abortion, a survey suggests.

YouGov questioned 863 Catholics and 1,707 Protestants in Great Britain – who strongly agreed with the statement “my faith is important to me” – on the three issues.

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The results show that both groups are less accepting on the issues than the public as a whole.
Both same-sex marriage and euthanasia have been widely discussed within sections of the two churches recently.
Pope Francis is widely perceived to be a liberal influence on the Catholic Church – in 2013, when asked if there was ‘gay lobby’ in the Vatican, he replied: “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?”
Last year meanwhile, the Church of England opposed legislation to legalise gay marriage in the UK.

More Catholics support gay marriage than Protestants

gaymar.jpg
Source: YouGov Get the data
Same-sex marriage was made legal in the UK in March 2014, with the exception of Northern Ireland.
It remains illegal for the Church of England to carry out same-sex marriages.
Previous YouGov research found 38 per cent of the Church of England clergy said same-sex marriage was right while the majority, 51 per cent, said it was wrong.

Protestants are more likely than Catholics to support euthanasia

euth.jpg
Source: YouGov Get the data
Both groups remain more conservative than the general population on voluntary euthanasia.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has previously said that it is a “profoundly Christian and moral thing” to allow people to “end their lives with dignity”.
An assisted dying bill is expected to be debated in Parliament on 11 September.
Former Crown Prosecution Service chief Sir Keir Starmer has said it is time for politicians to legalise assisted dying.

Catholics want more restrictions on abortion laws

abortion.jpg
Source: YouGov Get the data
Both Protestants and Catholics are more opposed to abortion than the general population.
While abortion is legal in Britain, it is illegal in Northern Ireland, where it remains a contentious issue.
Last month, a United Nations committee said Northern Ireland’s abortion laws were putting women’s lives at risk.
The report concluded by calling upon Northern Ireland’s authorities to amend the country’s laws on abortion “with a view to providing for additional exceptions to the legal ban on abortion, including in cases of rape, incest, and fata foetal abnormality”.
Independent
Full Story at Belfast Telegraph

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia, History Tagged With: gay marriage, marriage equality, Stormont, survey

Kremlin Shuts Down Russia’s Only LGBT Film Festival

01/09/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

OUT dot com logoBY SUNNIVIE BRYDUM
AUGUST 31 2015 3:32 PM EDT

 

gay-kiss-lgbt-moscow-film-festival

Government officials cited a ‘difficult economic situation,’ but organizers of the film festival see further evidence of the country’s crackdown on LGBT visibility.


 

Pictured: Two men kissing at the Side by Side film festival in 2012.

Less than two weeks before Russia’s only LGBT film festival was set to begin, government officials have cancelled the program, reports ThinkProgress.

Citing a “difficult economic situation,” the Kremlin’s “culture committee” rescinded funding from Moscow Premiere, a film festival that, for the past 12 years, has hosted free screenings of films addressing LGBT issues in Russia and abroad.

Moscow Premiere organizers were notified of the abrupt change in plans on Tuesday, just eight days before the festival’s scheduled launch on September 2. That letter from Kremlin officials claimed the cancellation was necessary because “the culture department of Moscow has to limit the use of budgetary resources in 2015,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

However, the funds earmarked for Moscow Premiere have reportedly been shifted to a different, government-approved festival, organized by a Moscow city councilor who is a member of the nation’s ruling United Russia party. The new event, titled the Youth Festival of Life-Affirming Film, will reportedly feature an entirely distinct program, Moscow Premiere organizer and film critic Vyacheslav Shmyrov told a local paper.

“We cannot affiliate to the new festival — not least in terms of our self-esteem,” Shmyrov told newspaper Noviye Izvestia.

“Moscow Premiere is primarily a social festival and a charity project that exists for those people, especially the older generation, who can not afford to go to the movies,” Shmyrov added. “It is mainly a social mission.” Shmyrov does not believe he will have time to salvage any of the films that had been scheduled to screen at Moscow Premiere.

The festival’s cancellation is unfortunately par for the course in a nation that is increasingly hostile to LGBT visibility, amplified by the 2013 passage of a nationwide ban on so-called “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations,” which criminalizes any positive depiction of LGBT identities or issues in spaces that could be visible to minors.

Last year, the International Queer Culture Festival, known as QueerFest, took place in St. Petersburg, despite ominous threats from public officials and reports of physical harassment of attendees. In 2013, St. Petersburg’s Side by Side Film Festival faced bomb threats on its opening night, but ultimately carried on, screening Russian and U.S. films, including the Oscar-winning Milk, about LGBT trailblazer Harvey Milk. Side By Side Film Festival had been cancelled in 2008, with organizers given notice of the cancellation just hours before the festival was scheduled to open, but took place in 2012 and had scheduled events earlier this spring. 

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia, History Tagged With: LGBT Film Festival, Russia

Gay Teens Fall In Love In Dustin Lance Black’s Short Film For Coca-Cola

01/09/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

It’s a whole new world.

Headshot of JamesMichael Nichols
JamesMichael NicholsDeputy Gay Voices Editor, The Huffington Post
Posted: 08/20/2015 12:44 PM EDT | Edited: 08/21/2015 01:40 PM EDT

A compelling short film by Dustin Lance Black takes a look at young, queer romance and the choices teens have today in responding to those who may be different from them.
One of three short films written by Black for the Latin American ad campaign for Coca-Cola, “The Text” is a beautiful short that encourages teens to choose empathy over bullying — specifically aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
“The Text” depicts a young teen learning a close friend of his is in a romantic relationship with another teenage boy.
“Are you going to go the way of kindness, or are you going to go for the easy joke when someone’s having a tough time?” Black told Ad Week. “If you do something with acceptance and kindness, you can create a true friendship.”
Coca-Cola has a history of showing support for the LGBT community through its advertising. Most recently, they placed ads around Amsterdam depicting queer families that read, “We choose happiness over tradition.”
We can only hope that businesses encouraging healthy, empathetic relationships among young, queer teens is the way of the future!
H/T Towleroad

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia Tagged With: Coca Cola, Dustin Lance Black, gay teen, short film

Finding Shelter for Homeless LGBT Youth

31/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Craig and Marc Kielburger Headshot
Craig and Marc KielburgerCo-Founders, Free The Children
Huffington Post Logo
Homeless person on road -Getty Images/Flickr RF

Homeless person on road
-Getty Images/Flickr RF


For six months, Matt’s home was a park in downtown Toronto. In plummeting winter temperatures, he huddled under a bench and took sleeping medication to get through the night rather than brave one of the city’s emergency shelters.
When a researcher with Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) asked Matt why he lived this way, he said, “It was safer for me to be popping pills and sleeping outside in minus-zero weather than be in the shelter system [because of] transphobia and homophobia.”
Matt, 26, (his name has been changed) is transgendered. He’s one of thousands of homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (LGBT) Canadian youth. About 14 per cent of young Canadians identify as LGBT (according to multiple surveys of Canadian high school students), but they make up a disproportionately large (as many as 40 per cent) number of youth living on our streets. Some cities, like Ottawa, estimate that fully half of their homeless youth population is LGBT.
Earlier this summer, Canada’s first transitional housing dedicated to LGBT youth opened in Toronto — the YMCA’s Sprott House. Reading about this great initiative raised our awareness about an issue that needs to be on the radar of all Canadians — the unacceptable rate of LGBT youth who have no place to call home.
LGBT youth become homeless for much of the same reasons as other young people–family conflict, abuse, mental health issues and addiction. But according to Alex Abramovich, the CAMH researcher who interviewed Matt, when you add LGBT identity into the mix, the severity of these issues multiplies.
For example, when a young person comes out as LGBT, pre-existing family conflicts are more likely to escalate dangerously, says Abramovich. “I can’t tell you how many youth I’ve spoken to whose parents threatened to kill them when they came out,” he says.
LGBT youth also experience higher rates of mental health and addiction issues, Abramovich adds, in large part because of discrimination.
Once on the streets, the researcher says LGBT young people find the shelter system is often not a safe space for them. They face bullying and risk violence from non-LGBT youth, and sadly sometimes even from shelter staff, who are supposed to be there to support them.
When the thermometer dropped below -20 Celsius, Matt finally fled the park to an emergency shelter. The shelter intake worker looked at Matt’s ID, which identified him as female with his former name, and accused him of lying about who he was. When Matt tried to explain he was transitioning genders, the worker stared uncomprehendingly and assigned Matt to the women’s dormitory.
“This is not a new problem. We’ve known about it for over 20 years, but we’re only starting to respond to it,” says Abramovich.
The province of Alberta, and some cities like Calgary and Toronto, are developing specific strategies to tackle LGBT youth homelessness. These include initiatives like mandatory training for all shelter staff who work with LGBT youth. One effort we find brilliant is the “Aurora host homes” program launched by the Calgary Boys and Girls Club in June. It provides training and financial support for compassionate families willing to take in homeless LGBT youth.
Sprott House manager Jeanette Blair says some of the ways it creates a safe space for LGBT youth include creating a welcoming atmosphere with LGBT-positive posters on the walls and eliminating dormitories so each resident has their own room with a private bathroom. “Common washrooms are places where trans youth face bullying and abuse,” she explains.
Sadly, when Abramovich last heard Matt, the young transgendered man was living in a tiny, rundown apartment, operating a small business to make ends meet. Matt said it was still the park that felt most like home — that was where he had always felt most safe.
No young person should live in fear. Sprott House and the Calgary host program show we can find compassionate solutions to give all LGBT Canadian youth a caring and safe place to live, and the support they need to fulfil their potential.
We need solutions like these in every city across the country if Canada is to remain a world leader in LGBT acceptance and rights.
Brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger founded a platform for social change that includes the international charity, Free The Children, the social enterprise, Me to We, and the youth empowerment movement, We Day.

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia Tagged With: canada, Free The Children, homelessness, LGBT youth

Youth empowerment: how to build GSAs in school?

31/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

ILGA LogoPosted: 30 July 2015
 

COC-Netherlands and ILGA-Europe are jointly organising a capacity-building seminar on supporting youth to start GSAs (Gay-Straight Alliances) in schools. The seminar will take 6-8 November 2015 in Amsterdam.

Youth empowerment: how to build GSAs in school?

Youth empowerment: how to build GSAs in school?


 
COC-Netherlands and ILGA-Europe are jointly organising a capacity-building seminar on supporting youth to start GSAs in schools. GSAs are groups of LGBTI and non-LGBTI people that want to create a safer school for everyone. GSAs are often named Gay-Straight Alliances but can also mean Gender and Sexuality Alliance.
The event will take place in November in Amsterdam. There are 12 seats available for this training. If you are interested, please fill in this form and send it back by the 1 September to Sophie Aujean, Senior Policy and Programmes Officer.

What are the expected outcomes of this training?

  • Participants know what a GSA is and the different forms it can take.
  • Participants know how to support teenagers in schools to establish GSAs in schools.
  • Participants are aware of lessons learnt from good practices and bad experiences when supporting teenage activism in schools and establishing GSAs.
  • Participants understand the links between youth empowerment, grassroots activism and the setting up of GSAs in schools. They feel confident to contribute to this youth empowerment.
  • Participants identify the benefits and challenges related to building a GSA in schools in their own context.
  • Participants know where to start and how to establish a GSA in schools.

Eligibility criteria:

  • To be an activist working (voluntarily or as paid staff) for an LGBTI organisation member of ILGA-Europe.
  • To be already working with schools (from primary schools to higher education) or intend to do so in the coming year (please provide evidence of this).
  • To reside in one of the 28 EU Member States + Iceland + Liechtenstein

Please answer the questions below in less than 150 words each:

Q1. Describe briefly your organisation
Q2. Introduce yourself and your role in your organisation
Q3. What activities have you (or your organisation) been doing so far in the area of education? Are you working with schools directly? If not, do you plan to do so?
Q4. Are there already GSAs in your country in other areas (e.g. workplace) or in schools?
Q5. What benefits do you think establishing a GSA in your context could bring? What challenges do you foresee?
Q5. What are your motivations to attend this training and what are your expectations?
Q6. How do you plan to disseminate the learnings from the seminar?

Information on logistics:

ILGA-Europe covers the accommodation and travel costs of 12 participants, arrival on 6 November (afternoon) and departure on 8 November (afternoon). A daily subsistence allowance is provided. Please note that we might ask participants to share twin rooms.
Thank you very much for your interest in attending this training!

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia Tagged With: bullying, COC-Netherlands, education, GSA, ILGA-Europe, training

Queer Home Kryvbass was attacked

31/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Yesterday, 31st August 2015,  around 20:30 in the evening, unidentified men in masks attacked a Queer Home Kryvbass.
Photo- Corbisimages
The attackers threw smoke bombs at the community center and destroyed the premises. During an attempt to stop criminals one of the center visitors was attacked and stunned. At the moment he is in the emergency department, the information about his condition is being clarified.
A day earlier, on the night from 29 to 30 of August closed LGBT party was attacked in Kryvyi Rih.
About 2 o’clock after the midnight the door of the cafe, where a closed event was held, was knocked down and about 20 men in masks broke in and beaten up the visitors. Witnesses said the attackers were in the T-shirts with symbolic of the Right Sector.
The police officers arrived at the crime scene and almost everyone of the attackers were released. Protocols for the entire brotherhood were written by Anton Kravchenko, the leader of Kryvyi Rih automaidan.
In the autumn of 2014 Anton Kravchenko was one of the attackers on the prosecutor and he featured in court proceedings as a defendant.
One of the main functions of the state is to protect its citizens. UPO “Gay Alliance Ukraine” appeals to the law enforcement authorities with a demand not only to punish those responsible for today’s incident, but also to take all possible measures to protect the life, health and fundamental rights of the citizens of Ukraine.
 

Author:Mila Demur

Filed Under: Anti-Bullying & Homophobia Tagged With: attack, kryvyi rih, queer home

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