Ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interfobia, Transphobia, the BiH Pride March is organizing a regional panel discussion “What’s Pride March got to do with it?” on the 16th of May at 6pm via the Zoom platform.
International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interfobia, Transphobia – IDAHOBIT is marked on 17th May every year.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, this day has been marked for a number of years through various public activities which pointed out problems LGBTIQ people are faced with on a daily basis.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, event planning has proven to be specifically hard, as the online tiredness caused by the enormous amount of using this space is a serious occurrence, and events in the streets are still engulfed by uncertainty in various places. Being in the pandemic for over a year causes many hardships for all of us, both mental due to the omnipresent stress, as well as physical due to the limited ability to move and act. The pandemic has limited many freedoms and prompted us to be responsible and show solidarity towards each other. Even though there have been many cases of human rights violation, violence, denying freedoms, LGBTIQ activists have been finding creative ways to occupy the public space and turn attention to violence and discrimination which LGBTIQ persons face every day.
Thus, we would like to open a space for challenging and exchanging information and ideas with the organizers of pride marches in our region (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina). We believe it is important to discuss the pressure, stress and challenges brought about by the pandemic for pride marches and activism in general, especially being aware of the fact that public assemblies of LGBTIQ persons, regardless of the pandemic, are struggling with the institutional and social homophobia because of which there is prejudice that, as such, they are not necessary.
Through discussion with LGBTIQ activists from the region, we will be talking about how challenging it was to act under the pandemic conditions. How does this state of apathy and constant stress and fear affect the activist engagement and public assemblies. How do activists currently view the state of LGBTIQ rights in their countries, as well as how they are planning to organize pride marches this year.
We invite you to join us and mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interfobia, Transphobia with us.
Zoom discussion will be held in BCMS and English languages, and a simultaneous interpretation will be provided as well. The discussion can also be viewed live on our Facebook page, and you can apply via the following link.
We are organizing the discussion in cooperation with Oštra nula from Banja Luka.