The public awareness of the issues related to gay men has probably never been so prominent in the national discourse.
But, UNIBAM wants to push it further along and it joined with other advocate organizations in a Dialog to increase the visibility of homophobia, discrimination and understanding of gender based violence while also framing a background document for the development of an Anti-Discrimination Legislation.
Caleb Orozco told us more:
Caleb Orozco
"What's happening here is that we are looking at the issue of gender base violence, homophobia and LBGT human rights. Because we recognize that it's little discuss, little understood and so our work around this issue is about understanding and consciousness that it does exist and there is a link between the 3 issues."
"Whether its sexual abuse, physical abuse and discrimination - all those persons who experience it belong to a family and that family has a mother and a father. When you look at the issues from a family perspective it's a son or a daughter being impacted. More precisely discrimination in our mind happens differently for males versus females. For males the issue might be direct insults, threats and ridicule. For women in the LBGT community it might be intense sexual harassment and mixed around the idea that if they have sex with a straight man their lesbianism would go away. These issues which not only impact psyche of the individual but it impact psyche of the family because then families are between whether to support a love one or to argue against the individual they claim they love, life and forgetting the love and the dignity of that person is the most important thing of all."
"We are hoping to start a conversation not only with our supporters but we start a conversation with an organization about the intensity of their position. At the end of the day I believe religion speaks the love but that love somehow has been lost along the way with the intensification of homophobic remarks that are being made using the bible. Beyond that we are hoping that people recognize that discrimination isn't just a LBGT issue, it's a family issue, it's an everyone issue. We experience it different and what we are looking is to broaden that understanding and seeks the legislative framework necessary for that recognition to occur."
Over 40 persons attended this morning's seminar that was held at the Radisson.
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