The 6th edition of the kiss-in against homophobia will be held May 16th at 4pm in the Buttes Chaumont neighborhood in Paris, and certainly in other French cities and around the world. The day before the International Day Against Homophobia, the organizers invite you to kiss and defend the right to love.
The phenomenon of kiss-ins against homophobia continues to develop since its infancy in June 2009, where the first one only hosted 12 participants. The subsequent kiss-ins in France and elsewhere have all ended up attracting several hundred people.
The last one at Paris's Place Saint Michel on Saint Valentine's Day had the most media attention (with several lengthy blog entries from Yagg-click on links to read them), and was unfortunately marred by some hateful reactions, but hey, that's not a reason to throw in the towel!
"The kiss-in movement against homophobia grew out of an effort to enhance homosexuality's acceptance in society, helping GLBTs to get beyond rejection that can sometimes be violent and also engender GLBT self-hatred", said the organizers of the upcoming event.
"It works like this: people kiss their partners for five minutes in front of passers-by, with the goal of defending the right to love without having to hide it. These events are held on-time, peacefully, and in the spirit of community. The vision of the kiss-ins is to gather GLBTs in the diversity of their own environment. We do it without slogans and posters, because kiss-ins are not protests. It's supposed to be a happy event where we address the GLBT community's visibility in society with respect and love. Finally, it is not against any particular group of people but against homophobia in general."
Organizers of the next kiss-in are hoping to collect as many videos and photos as possible for Internet braodcast the next day to commemorate the day against homophobia.
If you would like to organize a kiss-in in your city, you can contact the organizers here.
