Meeting of the Regional Network Against Homophobia

From March 12th to 15th 2013, organizations working with LGBTI rights from 19 countries gathered in Ankara, Turkey, for the 4th regional meeting, within the Regional network against homophobia, organized by KAOS GL from Turkey.

More about КАОS GL

Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Algeria, Armenia, Palestine, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Montenegro, Kosovo, Lebanon, Macedonia, Egypt, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and Greece were represented via their NGOs who are working to improve the situation of the LGBTI population.

The meeting was focused on media and LGBTI population, with a discussion on challenges, positive and negative examples of representation of LGBTI topics by the media. Experiences were shared by different countries and regions, regarding the impact of certain ways of transferring LGBTI-related news.

The second module of the meeting introduced the topic of cyber (or virtual) and physical security of LGBTI people and activists in different countries. Various existing threats and challenges to the increase of the security level were shared alongside the experiences of the activists present.

The third module comprised the organization of a football match of the activists and representatives from the international diplomatic core, as a sign of support to Halil Ibrahim Dinçdag, who is the first openly gay referee and is currently in a legal struggle against the Turkish football federation, which had outed him publicly without his consent and he was fired because of his sexual orientation.

“The football field is not only for heterosexual men. Anyone can enjoy football, regardless of sex or sexual orientation!!” Ali Arol, KAOS GL

After the football match, a panel discussion titled “Football against Discrimination” was held at the Ankara University where Piara Povar, the executive director of FARE (Football Against Discrimination in Europe), Lu Englefield from “Football vs. Homophobia” from England and Zeljko Blace from “qSPORT” from Croatia held speeches on the topic of sport and homophobia.

More photos on this link.