LGBT Youth & Social Inclusion Conference

Last Monday 17^th June, I was representing OBESSU at the LGBT Youth and Social Inclusion conference organized by @Belong To in Dublin. The conference was interesting and emotive for everyone. People there had the opportunity to see how LGBT issues are being worked by different organisations and institutions of the European Union, as the day was divided to listen different policy makers and stakeholders depending on the context.

First of all, it was good to compare the situations and LGBT realities in different countries, and see how bad it is in some places but how full of energy, motivated and powerful are the leaders working with LGBT there. One example was Eliza Byard (GLSEN, USA), who reflected on the incredible progress in the last 4 years in USA, and how that example means what is possible to do, and what we still need and must do. Also Tomas Vytautas (Lithuanian Gay League) was reflecting on Lituanian context and where LGBT is going to be in the Lithuanian EU Presidency, as it’s not considered.

In the afternoon we went to different workshops: Youth Unemployment, Participation & Rights, Education, and Youth Services. OBESSU was in education workshop, working on the Draft Dublin Principles on LGBT Youth & Social Inclusion.

There was also space to get to know the European Initiatives on the Social Inclusion of LGBT Youth, were we could ask to Pascal LeJeune (European Commission) what are the next steps to do Youth in Action programme more inclusive with LGBT, and also to Sophie Aujean (ILGA-Europe) what it’s needed to do and what ILGA needs from other organisations.

For me, the best part was to listen different activists from Belong To, who showed us how important is to work with LGBT in our organisations. This activists were telling us how they felt when they realized that they weren’t like the others, how cruel and hard was for them to say it, as they didn’t know how their classmates could react because school students are not told  trans people actually exist. They felt pressured by society, as a lot of school students are feeling being LGBT. But then they found Belong To, and they told us how one organization as ours can change people lives. They just realized that they were not the only ones, they were not alone and there were organisations working to solve this problems, which is still needed.

The conference was an awesome space of sharing experiences and learning, and now I could say I’m more than motivated to work on the OBESSU social inclusion campaign, as OBESSU can do a lot related to LGBT.

Activists from Belong To:

-“I thought I was the only one, I thought I was a freak.”

-“We are people too, not just statistics.”

-“I wouldn’t be who I am today without Belong To.”