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IDAHOBIT 2026


On Thursday 21st May we came together for our monthly meeting to mark International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), which falls on 17th May each year. Our host Matt Smith introduced the event and then covered off the basics:


What is IDAHOBIT?

  • The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, observed annually on 17 May, raising awareness of LGBTQ+ rights violations and promoting global solidarity.

  • 17 May marks the 1990 decision by the World Health Organization to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases.

  • Conceived in 2004; first observed in 2005 following a global campaign supported by 24,000 individuals and multiple LGBTQ+ organisations.


We then had a read-out from the Journey survey by Joe Brown, focused on the -phobias. We heard some depressing but unsurprising statistics:

  • A third of respondents had personally experienced the -phobias 'very often', 'often', or 'sometimes' (11% 'very often' or 'often')

  • In roughly two thirds of the cases, colleagues were responsible, and in a third it was customers

  • Only 17% 'always' reported incidents

  • 58% 'never' reported them

  • 17% of respondents said that biphobia, homophobia or transphobia has been a factor when they have chosen to leave a role, location or organisation

  • 35% of respondents believe their LGBTQ+ identity has, or could, limit their career progression options

  • Front-line customer facing and other operational colleagues are much more likely to experience the -phobias than office-based colleagues 


Then, the free text comments from the survey gave some insight into barriers faced in the workplace to people feeling able to 'come out', and we ended with a toolkit of suggested initiatives for organisations to take to promote greater LGBTQ+ inclusion and combat the -phobias.


Skye Haynes, the South Western Railway Body Worn Video Engagement Coordinator, then picked up on the survey findings about the greater prevalence of the -phobias experienced by frontline colleagues and shared a case study showing the superiority of Body Worn Video to help identify suspects and to secure convictions over traditional CCTV and other sources of evidence.


Finally Lindsey Turner, Senior User researcher at the DVLA, looked at the -phobias from a transport customer perspective. Lindsey collated findings from research carried out to date and then took us through available data before touching upon some recommendations for organisations.


Enormous thanks to our speakers and to the 70 people from the transport industry who joined the webinar. The slides are here and we will work to create a toolkit on the website capturing these insights to support conversations with transport industry employers:



 
 
 

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