Recognizing the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia

The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia is an annual observance that was created in 2004 to draw attention to LGBTQIA+ rights violations, raise awareness, and celebrate sexual and gender diversity. It is held on May 17th to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1990. 

The Day serves to reaffirm the human rights and fundamental freedoms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons, as well as serve as a worldwide celebration of sexual and gender diversities. This year’s theme, “Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights,” serves to highlight that our bodies are our lives and everyone has the right to live freely and in dignity.  

To acknowledge the day’s aim and purpose, we have curated a list of resources as a starting point to provide an opportunity to act and engage in dialogue with the media, policymakers, public opinion, and wider civil society:

  • Name change policy: As part of our commitment to addressing the needs of all research communities to improve diversity, equity and inclusion, SAGE has introduced a policy to enable name and pronoun changes for our authors. You can read more about the policy on the SAGE Perspectives blog.  

  • Queer & Trans Perspectives in Academia: This panel looked at LGBT+ heritage in academic institutions, queer methodologies in social scientific inquiry, and trans perspectives on abolition.