Cork City LGBTI+ Awareness Week with a difference kicks off on Sunday

LGBTI Awareness Week 2020

15th May 2020

This Sunday, May 17,  Cork City will mark International Day Against Homophobia, Biophobia and Transphobia  ( IDAHOBIT Day)  as  it has done each year since 2010 by organising LGBTI+ Awareness Week – a week when public agencies, lgbti+ NGOs and communities come together to say that it is the job of the city and all of our jobs to challenge homophobia, biophobia and transphobia.

Cork City’s tenth LGBTI+ Awareness Week will be our first as a member of the International Rainbow Cities Network – the first and only city on the island of Ireland to have become part of this network of cities who pledge to protect and enhance lgbti+ rights and inclusion. We had a range of different events planned but obviously in the midst of Covid -19 we’ve had to re-shape these to support the public health and covid community response.

 

  • On Sunday at 12 noon the Lord Mayor of Cork,  Cllr John Sheehan will raise the Rainbow Flag at Cork City Hall, as each Lord Mayor has done since 2014 – another first as the city was the first to formally fly a Rainbow Flag from a civic or public building on the island of Ireland.**
  • St Anne’s  Church Shandon – an Inclusive Church will hold an online IDAHOBIT Day Service at which members of the LGBTI+ InterAgency Steering Group and Choral Con Fusion will participate.
  • The Crawford Art Gallery will host an lgbti+ themed tour of their wonderful collection.

 

Throughout the week on our Facebook page, Cork City LGBT Inter Agency  Group and on twitter, @CorkLGBTAwarenessWeek we’ll remind you of the previous decade of Awareness Weeks and feel free to share your own memories or photos with us . This year our theme is “Proud to be part of a Rainbow City” – we invite you to share in this pride by posting a message or video and we’ll share it via the LGBTI+ InterAgency social media . 

 

The partnership between city, public services, interagency group and community that have enabled our Rainbow Cities membership to happen are the same kind of partnership we are all now drawing on to help us through Covid -19 ; in the midst of a very challenging time we trust this is a harbinger of hope, much like the rainbow itself!