IDAHOBIT 2023 Together always: United in diversity
Monday, 15 May 2023
-
Professor Arshad Omari, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Wednesday 17 May is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia, otherwise known as IDAHOBIT.
The theme of this year's event is Together always: United in diversity.
This day commemorates the date in 1990 when the World Health Organisation (WHO) removed homosexuality from the Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.
We continue to celebrate this date and use it to raise awareness of the work that still needs to be done to combat discrimination, achieve legal reform, and address the social, economic and health inequalities that impact LGBTIQA+ communities today.
A recent step ECU has taken as a university to address this, is asking students a voluntary question on enrolment about whether they are LGBTIQA+ so that we can provide targeted support and opportunities to this cohort. We have been overwhelmed by the success of this initiative in connecting students with peers and university support.
This IDAHOBIT, I encourage you to seek information and increase your knowledge about LGBTIQA+ discrimination and what you can do to support LGBTIQA+ staff, students, alumni and the wider community.
You may wish to do so by:
- Attending Careers and Employability Services Pride at Work panel for Careers Week (in person or online) on Wednesday 17 May
- Attending events that are being run through ECU Student Guild and ECU Queer Collective This includes a Pride party on the Mount Lawley campus, and a series of fair day events with a wide range of activities across all campuses.
I look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure that ECU is a safe and inclusive environment where everyone can be themselves.
Kind regards,
Professor Arshad Omari
Acting Vice-Chancellor