During this year’s observation of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia – 17th May, we organized a public discussion with key speakers being stakeholders working with and for the LGBTI community in Macedonia.
With that said, the public discussion covered several aspects of challenges that the LGBTI faces today and through moderated discourse, the numerous solutions and steps that the government bodies can take were addressed.
Namely, this year as a special guest we had the Minister of Labour and Social Policy present and serving as a panelist speaker.
We are grateful for their continuing work to advance LGBTI rights forward in the Republic of Macedonia, as well as their tireless efforts to develop a new draft bill on anti-discrimination – one that will now cover SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) as grounds of discrimination.
For that reason, it is why we have decided to award Ministry of Labor and Social Policy as this year’s recipient of the ‘Ally of the Year’ award.
While receiving the award, the minister Carovska stated: “We must ensure protection of fundamental LGBTI rights first, then to proceed with asking for more rights”.
The award ceremony was part of today’s public discussion on integrated access to healthcare and social services for LGBTI people organized by Subversive Front at the EU Info Centre in Skopje.