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Honouring the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

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General
By Emily Carr University

Posted on | Updated

Filed in Faculty, Staff, Students

Day homophobia
may17.org

Today, we honour the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. The day was created in 2004 to draw attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex people and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sex characteristics.

May 17 was chosen specifically to commemorate when the World Health Organization decided to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder from the International Classification of Diseases in 1990.

This year’s theme is “Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights” which reminds us that everyone should be able to express their gender freely and advocate for further reforms to ensure equal rights for all.

To learn more, visit may17.org.

To support your engagement with this day, we encourage you to review the materials below:

The Library has put together the 2SLGBTQQIA+ guide, which provides a selection of resources on Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and asexual identities, including books and graphic novels about gender identity and expression that centre trans and non-binary voices, and provide comprehensive histories and analyses of gender experiences.

Learn about the guide and how the Library team organized these materials here.

Last year, Ky Sargeant of TransFocus led a series of workshops on Gender Diversity for the ECU community. The sessions focused on introducing language and concepts related to gender diversity and insights into the unique and often invisible challenges and barriers faced by transgender people.

Review TransFocus’ helpful materials on A Primer on Gender Identity and Gender Inclusive Language.


Anyone needing support can find university and community resources via ECU’s Counselling Services:

If you need support, the Counselling Team is here to help and is offering services in-person and online. The team has also assembled this resource list for additional support.