On the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia we celebrate diversity in sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sex characteristics. As the theme this year rightfully states: together always, united in diversity!
This day, we also acknowledge 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.

We still live in a world where being heterosexual, cisgender and having unambiguous sex characteristics is the norm. As a consequence, all other people often have to fight for their place – which should be evenly obvious, but in many places is not.
We experience the same issues in many heathen communities, although we would expect heathen people being more open, because they know how it is to be marginalised. Still, a lot of heathen people have the same prejudices as general society.

That is why The Wyrd Thing likes to emphasise the biological diversity we see in nature. As heathens we realise that humans are part of nature too, and we cannot but accept that the assumed binaries in sex, gender and sex characteristics are more of a human construct than these are facts.
Today we like to ask all heathen communities: How do you make a warm welcome and safe(r) space for people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sex characteristics in your community?

The date of International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia refers to 17th May 1990, the day that the WHO acknowledged that homosexuality is just one of many sexual orientations, instead of a disease, and deleted this diagnosis (!) from their International Classification of Diseases. IDAHOT was first celebrated in 2004.

#IDAHOT #IDAHOTB #IDAHOBIT