International Day Against Homophobia

When I worked with Air Force Entertainment back in the early 90's we lent our sets and crew to Mandy Patinkin's show. His tour manager was a rather flamboyantly gay man who was quite fun to work with, but who inexplicably scared the hell out of many of the more macho guys on the crew. Months later as President Bush, Sr. enacted the foolish 'don't ask, don't tell' policy, my rants against gay discrimination earned me little more than questions about my own sexuality. In Louisiana I actually met people who thought 'gayness' could be cured with counseling, or (and I am not making this up) exorcism. Homophobia is as strong and pervasive as ever, and while passing this information along is truly the least I could do, at least it is something. Please share this in any way you can.

A word from the President of the Fondation Émergence
Laurent McCutcheon


Greetings from www.homophobiaday.org. This site is the brainchild of the Fondation Émergence, which is dedicated to fighting this scourge on our societies that is homophobia. It wishes to introduce you to International Day Against Homophobia.

As this site is bound to grow in the days and months ahead, you are cordially invited to consult it often for regular updates. It will give you information on International Day Against homophobia, and on homophobia in general. A lot of data already exist on homophobia but never has it been garnered in one place on the internet; www.homophobiaday.com aims at reaching this important goal.

Whatever your sexual orientation may be, I urge you to get involved in your community since the fight against homophobia concerns all of us. I thus invite you to support our efforts, notably by planning activities to meet the spirits and objectives of the International Day against Homophobia. We would also appreciate receiving real-life testimonies of first or second-hand encounters with homophobia.

“From tolerance to acceptance”; this slogan was chosen in 2003 to underline the necessity to go beyond tolerance, as it is too often associated with indifference. To fight homophobia, each and every one of us will have to work together.

In closing, we would like to thank all the partners which has made all this possible. Thank you for putting your trust in us.

The President of the Fondation Émergence