TURKEY-BASED LGBT GROUP, KAOS GL, TO HOLD ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA MEETING FOR PEACE.

IDAHO in Europe – an analysis from the field The Turkey-based LGBT rights group, Kaos GL, is organising a two-day conference and parade to mark International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia 2013. The 8th annual International Anti-Homophobia Meeting will run on the 17th and 18th of May and will focus on LGBT rights and the question of peace.

Activists involved with Kaos GL have long been active proponents of achieving lasting peace, and will lead discussions on the “peace process” on the first day of the meeting. They have invited all LGBT people and allies to take part in the meeting and explain on their site:

“Kaos GL claims that unless the Kurdish feel free and equal regarding being ’Kurdish’, no one will really be free… Pointing at links between homophobia/transphobia and sexism, nationalism, racism and militarism, Kaos GL aims at making connections between various kinds of discrimination. It also aims at forming lateral networks between struggles and practices against discrimination.”

Scholars, unionists, film directors and politicians from Turkey as well as the USA, Poland, the Netherlands and France will attend the meeting on May 17th and 18th, which will be held in Ankara, at the Çağdaş Sanatlar Merkezi (ÇŞM – Center of Contemporary Arts).

“We Will Parade on May 19th!”

Since 2008, the International Anti-Homophobia Meeting has ended with a parade. This year’s “Parade Against Homophobia and Transphobia” will take place on Sunday May 19th and will engage the theme, for a world in which LGBT and heterosexual people can live freely together.

Anyone interested in showing their opposition to homophobia and transphobia should gather at Kurtuluş Park at 2pm.

“From May 1st to 17th!”

Kaos GL will also be organising events throughout the month of May (from the 1st to the 17th) this year, which key into the theme of organising “against heterosexist colonialist system destroying all ethnic, cultural and sexual differences and enforcing a monolithic identity.”

Several events will be organized at Ankara University, Middle East Technical University (METU) and Hacettepe University and details of these events will be announced on April 30th, Tuesday.

For more information/the original article see the Kaos GL site.