May 17, International Day Against Homo-, Bi-, Inter- and Transphobia 🏳️‍🌈
Tags: inclusion, codeiscolorful, diversity, lgbtq
Published: 2020-05-17 12:48:37

It's **International Day Against Homo-, Bi- Inter and Transphobia** (IDAHOBIT). Today I want to share what my colleagues and I did to raise awareness of the day, its meaning and why it's important.

## We asked our colleagues to show their support
At SinnerSchrader we have a Skill Group called **Diversity Matters**. Among other things we also discuss topics and plan actions around special days, such as the International Day Against Homo-, Bi-, Inter- and Transphobia.

To do so we sent out the following e-mail to our colleagues:

> Sunday, May 17 is the International Day Against Homo-, Bi- Inter and Transphobia and we (the Skill Group Diversity Matters) would love to show our support as a company.
> Since all events for this year have to happen online, we came up with the idea to create a social media & blog post. Therefore we want to create a mosaic picture of us (as a company) wearing colors of the LGBT* pride flag to raise awareness and show our support.
>
> **How can you support?** Send a picture of you (until 14th of May) to diversity_sg@sinnerschrader.com wearing any of the following colors:
> / RED - Love
> / ORANGE - Respect
> / YELLOW - Freedom
> / GREEN - Tolerance
> / BLUE - Equality
> / VIOLET - Pride
>
> The date May 17 has been chosen because the WHO removed homosexuality from the list of diseases on May 17, 1990. More information can be found on may17.org.
> Let’s shed more light on LGBT+ rights violations together  
>
> If you have any questions, please get in contact with diversity_sg@sinnerschrader.com.


## Pictures can say more than words
Our hope was, that we get an awesome picture from our colleagues which we can share on social media to show our support, but also to raise awareness in the company.
In total we got 150 pictures from our SinnerSchrader colleagues and even our friends from Accenture ♥. A lot of them let us known that they like this initiative. We as the Diversity Matters group were so delighted that this topic seems to be important to them. We are truly thankful for the solidarity our colleagues showed! 
That’s why I wanted to share this story: *Sharing is Caring*.

#### The result speaks for itself
![Mosaic picture of SinnerSchrader and friends in LGBT+ flag colors ](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/6vu2vvznjsbwq9768cmx.jpg)
 


## More about LGBT+ rights and awareness
We didn’t want to “only” ask our colleagues to show their support. We also wanted to raise awareness of the day itself. That’s why [Annika](https://dev.to/annikerh) interviewed our colleague  [Lea](https://twitter.com/terabaud), who had the idea to highlight that day.
They talked about the importance of the IDAHOBIT, why Lea involves herself in diversity actions at work and what she wishes for the future.
You can read the interview here, [Diversity matters: About the significance of raising awareness of LGBT+ issues](https://dev.to/s2engineers/diversity-matters-about-the-significance-of-raising-awareness-of-lgbt-issues-37hp) 🏳️‍🌈


We say **no** to Homo-, Bi-, Inter- & Transphobia. **No** to violence against LGBT+ people. **No** to discrimination in countries all over the world.
We say **yes** to tolerance and respect. **Yes** to inclusion and diversity.

Join us in raising awareness, even with little things. Let’s stand together and create a better and more equal world!

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Even though the International Day Against Homo-, Bi- Inter and Transphobia and other days dedicated to related issues are important and have to be used to accentuate current events, we (the diversity matters group at SinnerSchrader) find that these topics should be discussed every day. We are constantly thinking about initiatives in order to do so. Let us know, if you’re interested in learning more about this!

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