By Jess McCabe | 1 September 2009, 14:54

In what is planning to become a monthly event, the first international Same-sex hand holding (Sshh!) Saturday starts on September 26:

On this day, same-sex couples and friends all over the world are encouraged to hold hands in public to support the visibility of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans (LGBT) people. Sshh! Saturdays will occur on the last Saturday of every month, publicised by A Day In Hand. This is a revolutionary way of encouraging and inspiring LGBT people to take responsibility for their equality and live their lives without fear or restraint.

The campaign is asking people who take part to send their Sshh! photos to yourstories@adayinhand.com. The first Sshh! Saturday is held in memorium of the shooting at an LGBT youth centre in Tel Aviv “and the ongoing atrocities being committed to LGBT people in Iraq”.

You can see a whole load of photos and stories on the A Day in Hand website, including the one on this post of Alice & Em at Charing Cross Station, by Mark Weeks:

Me and Em hold hands everywhere we go, I’m aware we get stared at, might even be dangerous sometimes which scares me but I really believe it’s a basic human right to express my love for my girlfriend so I do it anyway. It’s funny not long after this photo was taken, we were walking in Islington (holding hands) when a teenage boy threw his drink over Em stating the obvious by calling us lesbians. We confirmed his suspicions and decided to educate him further by having a good old snog in front of him. He couldn’t believe our audacity and decided to coax his friends to follow us on the bus. By this point I was pooping my pants,thinking we may have gone a bit too far, but thankfully one of his friends saw sense (or noticed that a bus full of people might not tolerate any blatant homophobia quietly) and said “Leave em alone, they’re not hurting anyone, it’s up to them what they wanna do.” At which point they promptly got off the bus at the next stop and no doubt went on to harrass someone else. I was angry and scared, cautious about holding hands in public, but amazingly it also made me realise that their behaviour was because of ignorance, and the importance of A Day In Hand campaign.