17th of May,2008 - The International Day Against Homophobia
17th of May, 2008
The International Day against Homophobia, held on May 17 every year, is the climax of the Campaign focused against homophobia, which has as a main topic for 2008 the health services.
On May 17th, 1991 the World Health Day deleted the homosexuality from the mental disorders list. In 1992, this decision was officially registered in the WHO's list of international classification.
For years later, the American Psychology Association does the same thing, reaffirming officially that the homosexuality is not a disease.With all these, the prejudices against the gay community are still present among the workers in the health services and contrary to what the specialists and the researches, many people continue to believe that homosexuality is a disease.
Therefore, the stigma and discrimination against the people belonging to the gay community often causes reducing the access to these people to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care services.
Homosexuality is not a disease and the sexual activity between partners of the same-sex is not directly connected to the sexual transmitted infections that are both transmitted to different-sex partners and same-sex partners, with no connection with their sexual orientation.
The unprotected sex and the high number of sexual partners increase the risk of acquiring the sexual transmitted infections including HIV, being available both for heterosexuals and for LGBT.
The LGBT (lesbians, gay, bisexuals, and transgender) community people have the right - as any citizen - to non discriminatory health services.
More information on www.homophobiaday.org and on the ACCEPT Association's website www.accept-romania.ro
