In just over a week it will be the tenth ‘IDAHO’, or International Day Against Homophobia.
First marked on May 17, 2005, the day seeks to raise awareness of prejudice, discrimination and violence experienced by LGBT people, both in wider society and amongst policymakers.
May 17th was chosen as it is the date the World Health Organisation declassified homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, in 1990.
In 2009 the date ‘rebranded’ from IDAHO to IDAHOT to explicitly include transphobia rather than claim it as implied within the homophobia of the original name. In the years since pressure has grown to include biphobia explicitly in the same way, and refer to the date as IDAHOBIT.
As you’d imagine, this has created some disjoint in online discussion between the different names in use.
Bi and bi-positive groups in the UK are proposing to tweet using the tag #IDAHOBIT2014 this year: this includes not just the obvious suspects like Bi Community News and BiPhoria but organisations like the LGBT Consortium and Lesbian & Gay Foundation.
IDAHO, IDAHOT or IDAHOBIT: what do you think?
