Friday 14 May 2010

MGRM: Flowers of Friendship - International Day Against Homophobia - 17th May

http://www.maltagayrights.net/IDAHO2010
Fri, 07/05/2010 - 19:26 — Yao

[Click on the image to enlarge.]

MGRM will be joining in the celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) that is taking place worldwide on the 17th May. To mark this event, we are organising an event called 'Flowers of Friendship' in collaboration with Drachma.

MGRM and Drachma volunteers will gather in Valletta on Monday 17th May and distribute flowers to passers-by as a sign of friendship, respect and collaboration. Attached to the flowers will be positive quotes about LGBT issues and spirituality.

The 2 chosen quotes are:

“A parent who brings up a child to be a racist damages that child, damages the community in which they live, damages our hopes for a better world. A parent who teaches a child that there is only one sexual orientation and that anything else is evil denies our humanity and their own too.” – Desmond Tutu, bishop, activist and Nobel Prize winner

and

“We do now have a firmer sense that being gay or lesbian is a regularly occurring non-pathological minority variant in the human condition, and we are beginning to get a sense that there are forms of flourishing proper to that condition – for instance, being allowed to live honestly and to undergo the humanization of desire openly in relationships with other such people.” –James Alison, theologian


More info about IDAHO, here.
More events worldwide will also take place in Turkey, Cambodia, Israel,France, Luxembourg, Romania, UK, Ukraine, Brasil, Panama, Belgium, Sri Lanka, Burundi, Costa Rica, Cuba and a large number of other countries.


Local coverage of the event so far: l-Orizzont, Maltastar.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! this sis a very good entry i like it. Will certainly visit your site more often.

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  2. AnonymousMay 16, 2010

    Thank you for all the effort you put in for a very just cause on the island.
    I would just like to comment on the quotes you are using for your flower distribution on Monday. I feel they are very heavy and if we want to be accepted why not keep these things simple and show we are just "normal"?
    We shouldn't need to prove ourselves. I have been living on the island for the past 4 years with my Maltese girlfriend and we live in a village, never once have we experienced any problems. We live and let live and the same is reciprocated to us.
    I have taken the liberty of including 2 of my favourite quotes, and feel they really give people food for thought.

    Mothers, tell your children: be quick, you must be strong. Life is full of wonder, love is never wrong. Remember how they taught you, how much of it was fear. Refuse to hand it down - the legacy stops here. ~Melissa Etheridge, "Silent Legacy," Yes I Am, 1993

    Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands? ~Ernest Gaines

    Good luck with your event on Monday, unfortunately I work so will be unable to attend but my warmest thoughts and admiration are with you.

    Best wishes
    C

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