Χθες, 16 Μαΐου 2017, ο Ολλανδός Πρέσβης στην Αθήνα, κ. Caspar Veldcamp, μαζί με την οικογένειά του πραγματοποίησαν εκδήλωση στην κατοικία τους, στο πλαίσιο της Παγκόσμιας Ημέρας κατά της Ομοφοβίας, Αμφιφοβίας και Τρανσφοβίας.
Ο Ολλανδός Πρέσβης Caspar Veldcamp με την οικογένειά του
Στην εκδήλωση παραβρέθηκαν διπλωμάτες από άλλες Πρεσβείες της Αθήνας, εκπρόσωποι διεθνών οργανώσεων, των Ελληνικών Pride και μέλη της lgbt κοινότητας.
Στην ομιλία του ο Πρέσβης, μεταξύ άλλων, σημείωσε την σημασία του εορτασμού, ευχαρίστησε τους παρευρισκόμενους για τους αγώνες τους στο πεδίο των δικαιωμάτων στην Ελλάδα και έδωσε ραντεβού στο Pride της Αθήνας, στις 10 Ιουλίου, μαζί με άλλους πρέσβεις, στο, όπως το ονόμασε, “diplomats for Pride” block.
Στιγμιότυπο από την εκδήλωση
Ακολουθεί η ομιλία του Πρέσβη στα αγγλικά:
“Distinguished guests,
I am very happy to see so many of you here today! We have gathered here to celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, which is tomorrow, May 17th.
On this day, we celebrate sexual and gender diversity among people worldwide.
The main purpose of the May 17 mobilisations is to raise awareness of violence, discrimination, and repression of LGBT communities worldwide. In turn this provides an opportunity to take action and engage in dialogue with the media, policymakers, public opinion, and wider civil society. Representatives of all of these walks of society have been invited here today!
The day was conceived in 2004. A yearlong campaign culminated in the first International Day Against Homophobia on May 17, 2005. 24,000 individuals as well as organizations signed an appeal to support the "IDAHO initiative". In 2009, transphobia was added to the name of the campaign, and IDAHOT was created.
This year IDAHOT will focus on families. For this reason it was decided to join forces with the International Family Equality Day (IFED), which was on May 7th. So from May 7th until May 17th, advocates and activists are organizing celebrations all around the world under the title: “Love Makes a Family”.
Your efforts - big and small - help people in Greece to be themselves, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity.
As a token of support and encouragement for your contribution in the fight against homophobia and transphobia, I have invited you to an informal, social cocktail today.
This year we decided to broaden the circle of invitees. Apart from the NGOs we invite every year, we have added embassies, colleagues from the Greek state, international organisations, the private sector, journalists etc. Because we firmly believe that IDAHOT is a day that should be celebrated, not only by NGO’s amongst themselves, but together with all other parts of society.
I hope you all have a good time today and I will be very happy to see you all at the upcoming Athens Pride, on June 10th! More and more Embassies support Athens Pride every year. Our ambition is to make this participation even larger this year, with others embassies. Feel free to join us in our ‘Diplomats for Pride’ block!
Finally, since I have seen many of you taking pictures today, if you are planning on posting them, please incorporate the hashtags #IFED2017 and #IDAHOT into your online and social media communications so we can all gain even more visibility for IDAHOT.
Thank you!”
