One day training on LGBTI concepts held in Tirana

20 March 2015 – PINK Embassy / LGBT Pro Albania in collaboration with Shkodër Municipality held at the activity centre of the latter the one day training “LGBTI concepts and offering friendly services”. The activity lasted four hours and was held in the framework of the initiative “Improving the lives of LGBTI people at community level”.

The event was attended by representatives of Shkoder Municipality with a big number of directorates and different sectors of the institutions as well as representatives of local media, civil society organizations, prefecture, regional directorate of public health, psychologists etc. The event was covered widely by local media such as Rozafa, TVI Channel and Antena Nord.

The training was held into two parts. The first one served to present LGBTI concepts, of sexual orientation, gender identity etc. In this part participants identified also some of the prejudices and social concepts that exist in society about LGBTI persons. In this session in was noticed that main prejudices towards lesbians and gays were gender expression related.

The second part served to deepen on concepts and discuss issues such as heteronormativity, intersectionality etc. This part served also to have discussions together with participants and acceptance by religious community, difficulties of individuals to accept their own differences and characteristics etc.

For most participants the training was positive and necessary while many of them suggested for these activities to be organized as often as possible, more real life stories of LGBTI people. A deeper knowledge of state policies about LGBTI rights etc.

In their evaluation participants concluded that they will be able to use the new knowledge in their activities with civil society organizations and youth, will have a broader understanding towards their problems, face more objectively the needs and problems faced by this community and deepen their legal research on LGBTI issues.

PINK Embassy wishes to thank the Municipality of Shkodër for their cooperation and support in holding this training and wishes for such trainings to be organized as often as possible in the future.