PINK holds lecture with youth activists from Tirana

27 May 2015 – PINK Embassy / LGBT Pro held today training with activists from youth organizations present in Tirana which are members of the Tirana Youth Leadership network. In coordination with the latter the training was attended by 14 young activists from different youth organizations.

The training served to share with participants concepts of sexual orientation, gender identity, heteronormativity, heterosexism and to go deeper into different aspects of LGBTI identities such as trans and intersex.

Considering that this was a circle of young activists who have been engaged for years with different social and human rights causes the discussions were varied and engaging. While the participants had positive and accepting remarks about sexual diversity and social inclusion all of them made interesting remarks on how to increase and improve social perceptions about LGBTI rights.

One of the participants said that while accepting LGBTI people is a personal choice and sometimes not a difficult one, promoting LGBTI rights in the public comes with big challenges. He shared his experience of discrimination and “strange behaviour” from fellow students at his faculty following an open lecture that he held on LGBT organizations and issues.

Another activist added that challenges of accepting LGBTI people in semi-urban or rural areas are even more difficult. There, access to information is even more limited and lack of sexual education makes for many people to be judgmental about everything regarding sex, including LGBTI.

In her evaluation one activist said: “considering that for many Albanians this continues to be a taboo issue, it is important for such meetings and trainings to take place as often as possible. The list of target groups receiving these trainings should be bigger and the generation of our parents should also be included because it is them who cannot speak about this topic to their children”.

PINK wishes to thank the Tirana Youth Leadership for the collaboration and wishes for these activities to take place in the future.