As 100 countries celebrate IDAHOT today, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is calling for greater education to reduce the stigma and discrimination experienced by almost 50 million people living in countries (from a total 1.5 billion) where it is still illegal to be LGBT.

In his speech given in the Netherlands in the presence of the Dutch royalty, the Secretary General underlined that “For generations, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in all regions have been subjected to terrible violence on account of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin issued a warning to Catholics this week that are not free to “endorse or ignore immoral or destructive behavior,” and advised against attending any gay weddings now that same-sex marriage has been legalized in Rhode Island.

I welcome the World Bank’s commitment to gather some empirical date on the real cost of homophobia by commissioning its first study.

It is high time we paid attention to the economic outcomes of deliberately excluding people from contributing to their own destinies through attitudes, laws and barriers to education, health and business opportunities. I am going to share two stories to illustrate how important is the Bank’s foresight in commissioning this research.

How toxic sectarianism in Ireland was transformed

Not many of us know who invented the word “homophobia” even though we use it every day. Dr. George Weinberg first mentioned the word in the 1960s in one of his groundbreaking books, “Society and the Healthy Homosexual.” He was interviewed in 1998 in New York and gave the background to his creation of this word.