Obra Gay Associação (currently Opus Diversidades and formerly Opus Gay), is an NGO, non-profit and IPSS-Private Institution of Social Solidarity, Portuguese Public Utility Entity for the defence of the rights of LGBTQIA+ people. It was created in 1997 and formally registered by deed on April 9, 1998.
The founder, and president since then, taking a term from 2006 to 2007 Valter Filipe, was António Serzedelo, until June 15, 2020, and from that same date, and after elections, the new president is Hélder Bértolo.
The then Opus Gay organized the ilga conference Europe 2002 until today the only one held in Portugal.
In addition to direct associative work, the association also promoted a radio program, Vidas Alternativas, which began on Voxx Radio in 1999. After the extinction of radio in 2004 it went to online broadcasting and is currently broadcast by several local radio stations such as Radio Universitária do Algarve.
The association is a reference not only in terms of media in Portugal for LGBTQIA+ issues but also with official bodies having been received, for example, at the parliamentary hearing on transgender people.
Over the years, he has lobbied on several fronts, and has seen several real wishes of the target population be realized, in which the same-sex marriage, the adoption by both members of the same-sex couple, the change of the name of trans people in the identification documents stand out.
More than two decades ago, the 1st Manifesto Portuguese, shortly after the carnation revolution, signed by several civil society entities and well-known personalities, including António Serzedelo, came out.
It therefore advocates the support and defence of human rights, at individual and collective level, of sexual and ethnic minorities and social, labour, political, ecological and health intervention, in particular through the provision of preventive medicine care and information, more oriented towards the field of STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections), on the problems that affect society in general and specifically those that concern the referred minorities , as well as the social integration of the LGBT population in Portugal through a broad programme of support, in the social sphere, ensuring their quality of life, in the fight against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and the promotion of citizenship, human rights, and gender equality, etc.
Last Updated: 01/03/2021