Politics

Sydney hosts WorldPride Festival conference on LGBT+ rights

Sydney, Australia, Mar 1 (EFE).- The Human Rights conference of the WorldPride festival began Wednesday in Sydney with the participation of more than 1,500 activists, who will address discrimination and violence against the LGBT+ community for three days.

The event will discuss global issues such as the decriminalization of same-sex relations, legal recognition of gender identity, the prohibition of sexual conversion therapies or the social inclusion of members of the LGBT+ community, among others.

“In too many countries, LGBT+ people suffer persecution and selective discrimination, face attacks against their dignity and identity” or “criminalization and punishment, even the death penalty, simply for being who they are,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who has publicly come out, said in a recorded speech during the opening event.

She said her labor party, which took power in May 2022 and put an end to nine years of conservative rule, has taken steps toward social inclusion and the fight against stigmas, such as the appointment of an ambassador for Human Rights, the first in the country, to defend the LGBT+ community.

The conference would also shed light on countries that use “tradition or social morality as an excuse” to punish, discriminate and exercise violence against the LGTBIQA+ community. This was according to Víctor Madrigal-Borloz, an independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination of the United Nations collective, who spoke to public channel ABC.

The Costa Rican jurist said the panelists would also address issues such as the prohibition of pseudo-sexual conversion therapies – a practice usually influenced by religious reasons, that is not based on any scientific evidence and that, to this day, is still performed in many parts of Australia.

The conference, which will also deal with other pressing global issues for the LGBT+ community, is held within the framework of the WorldPride 2023 festival, which began Feb. 17 and will run until Sunday in Sydney. EFE

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