Training on LGBT rights held in Korçë

18 March 2015 – PINK Embassy / LGBT Pro in collaboration with the Municipality of Korçë held the one day training “LGBTI concepts and LGBTI friendly services”.

The activity which was held in the framework of the initiative “Improving the lives of LGBTI people at local/community level” was held at the Community Center of the Municipality with the participation of an inter sectorial group with representatives of different Directorates of the Municipality, State Police, Regional Directorate of Social Services, Regional Directorate of Public Health, Regional Directorate of the National Employment Service, civil society organizations and local media.

The training was split into several smaller sessions. The first part served for participants to explore in depth concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity and spoke at length about the cultural and social obstacles of understanding and accepting cultural and sexual diversity. This first part served to discuss more critically collective perceptions of sexual orientation and gender identity and put emphasis on lack of information in schools and the misrepresentation and misinformation on LGBT identities.

In the second pat participants managed to discuss more specifically issues such as heteronormativity, heterosexism and multiple discrimination.

During the third part participants discussed issues such as marriage, adoption, in-vitro fertilization, discrimination against women and girls and the heavy consequences of discrimination and exclusion. Thanks to the presence of health experts many issues came up such as fear of identification, lack of information and the negative consequences of hiding sexual orientation and sexual activities. Thanks to this diversity the discussion became very intersectional and the issue of multiple discrimination was discussed at length.

In their own evaluation experts appreciated the combination between new information shared by the trainee and the discussions that followed. For most of them offering better services to individuals despite their sexual orientation was one of the benefits of this training.

PINK / LGBT Pro team wants to thank the Municipality of Korçë for their cooperation in making this training a success and look forward to future trainings, open lectures, presentations and activities that will improve social perceptions on LGBTI people and services offered to them by public administration officials.