French gay-rights activist Louis-Georges Tin, editor of The Dictionary of Homophobia, will speak at York on Tuesday.
Right: Louis-Georges Tin
On May 17, 2005, the Paris-based activist launched the first International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia (IDAHO), now celebrated in more than 50 countries and officially recognized by the European Parliament. In 2006, he started a campaign for a universal decriminalization of homosexuality, which led to a declaration in the General Assembly of the United Nations on Dec. 18, 2008. So far, 66 of 192 UN member states support the declaration and Tin is campaigning to make the declaration a resolution.
Tin is also vice-president of the Coalition of Black Organizations in France. He has received several international human rights awards including the Golden Tupilak Award (Stockholm, 2005), the International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network Grizzly Bear Award (Moscow, 2006) and the Tolerantia Award (Berlin, 2006).
Tin has a PhD in Renaissance studies and lectures at the Instituts Universitaires de Formation des 
Maitres d'Orleans on 16th-century French literature and the history of sexuality.
He is editor of The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History Of Gay & Lesbian Experience. Recently translated into English, this 500-page publication originally published in 2003 features more than 175 scholarly essays documenting the history of homosexuality, and cultural responses to it, in all regions of the world.
Tin will speak Oct. 6 at 11am in the Sociology Common Room, 2101 Vari Hall . His talk is sponsored by the Sexuality Studies Program in the School of Women's Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.