Tamara Adrián – Transgender National Assembly Member, Venezuela
How did you initially become involved with activism and policy change? I have known since I was four-years-old that I am transgender. Later in life, after returning from law school in Paris and experiencing the benefits of the patriarchy as a heterosexual middle-class man, I began transitioning in the late 1980s. Once I began transitioning, […]
Lilliya Ten – The Grace, Kyrgyzstan
How did you get involved in activism? To be lesbian in the homophobic and patriarchal Kyrgyz society means to be a second-class human being. It is a double burden – to be discriminated against because you are a woman and because of your sexual orientation. For me, it was important to decide – either I […]
Agapitus Hausiku – Out-Right, Namibia
How has the Out-Right Namibia community been impacted by COVID-19? The community has been greatly impacted by the pandemic. We are inundated with requests for assistance on a daily basis. The majority of them have lost work; a significant number of them working in the tourism sector. Due to the lockdown, most of these establishments […]
Pedro Julio Serrano – Puerto Rico Para Tod@s
Hear the Interview in Spanish How did you get involved in activism? Well, I actually did not start being an activist, I started as a politician. I was the first political candidate in Puerto Rican history to announce my sexual orientation as gay and also come out as HIV positive. This was back […]
June Chua – The T Project, Singapore
Can you tell me about how you decided to start The T Project? I’d been a sex worker for many years. Sex work is very mundane and repetitive, and it came to a point where I wanted a change of career. The initiative came from a specific need, that my community needed a shelter; and […]
Alex Kofi Donkor – LGBT+ Rights Ghana
What is it like in terms of self-expression in Ghana? How does that affect LGBT people? There are quite a number of inequalities here, and it streams from so many levels within a whole system of oppression. This system is mostly driven by religious ideologies and fundamentalism. We have politicians, lawyers, judges, police, the military, […]
Olubiyi Sanders – ISHRAI, Nigeria
I want to hear a bit about you. How did you become involved in LGBTI activism? The things that pushed me to be an activist centered around issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV awareness, and human rights violations that LGBTQ community members face every day. One of the first things that led […]
Sarita KC – Mitini Nepal, Kathmandu
How did you become involved with LGBTIQ activism? I have experience in several professions such as teaching and fashion design. I never thought I would call myself an activist, but I’m proud to say now that I identify as a bisexual woman and I’m an LGBTIQ activist. Several years ago I met Laxmi Ghalan, the […]
Dennis Castillo Fuentes – IRCA Casabierta, Costa Rica
Listen to this interview in Spanish or read the translated transcription in English. https://www.alturi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/audio_only.m4a How did you get involved in activism? I started doing activism work when I was 13 years old. I first began getting involved in LGBTIQ organizations in my home country Honduras. I would say that I initially started doing HIV […]
Derricia Castillo-Salazar – Our Circle, Belize
How did you become involved in LGBTI activism? I started my advocacy journey in HIV/AIDS work when I was about 14 years old. I went to a religious high school and HIV/AIDS was a taboo topic, but I knew that it was worth advocating for. Later, when I joined the military, there was an opportunity […]
Simeon Vassilev – GLAS, Bulgaria
I would love to hear a bit about your own introduction to LGBTI activism. Seven or eight years ago, I first started helping with Sofia Pride, which is the only pride parade in this country of 7 million people. They asked me to curate an exhibition full of Pride art, which is relevant to my […]
Kalki Subramaniam – Sahodari Foundation, India
I’m wondering if you can tell me a little bit about what inspired the Sahodari Foundation. Since childhood, I’ve had difficult experiences because of my transgender identity. I experienced gender-based injustices and gender based-violence at school, at colleges, and in all sorts of public spheres. My trans friends had similar experiences that added mounting pressure […]
Javaria Waseem – The Self-Assumed Artist, Pakistan
Can you tell me about the image you made that circulated social media platforms in support of Julie Khan? I met Julie last year at the 2019 Aurat March for women’s rights in Islamabad, where I photographed her and got to know her. Throughout the year she started posting videos to a YouTube channel called […]
Nasta Mantsevich – Makeout, Belarus
What was it like to grow up as a queer person in Belarus? My story was, to a large extent, about invisibility. When I was growing up, I did not see similar stories or people in the media, in books, or on TV. In official media there is no LGBTQ coverage at all. I felt […]
Slava Melnyk – KPH: Campaign Against Homophobia
How did you become involved with LGBTI activism? I started back in 2011 when I was away from Poland studying in Slovenia and I found out there was a national demonstration in Poland. LGBTI activists were trying to block legislation and some people got hurt. I started researching the organization that developed around LGBTI issues […]
Tarek Zeidan – Helem, Lebanon
How did you become interested in this type of activism? When I was younger, I worked a lot with the trans sex worker community because I used to go to work in the area with a high concentration of brothels where trans women lived and worked. These were always individuals that I felt were braver […]
Maria Berenice Dias – “Homoaffectionate Law” and a Revolutionary Change in The Legal System
Shifting the paradigm Having the largest Catholic population in the world, Brazil is a country where culture, beliefs, and institutions are highly influenced by the Church. Catholicism left its mark on the legislation as well, contributing to the creation of a legal system that only recognized those who lived in the traditional family model — […]
William Lounsbury – Where Love is Illegal
Could you give me a brief summary of what the Where Love is Illegal project is about? The Where Love is Illegal project is a campaign to share stories of LGBTQ+ discrimination and survival from around the globe. Stories that we have documented ourselves, as well as stories that have been submitted by contributors to […]
Kakuma: From Celebration to Desperation
The camp is run by the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights and houses 200,000 refugees from 10 countries, most being from conservative Muslim backgrounds. UNHCR authorities have provided limited security for minority groups targeted by religious bigotry and LGBTI refugees have regularly been physically attacked, their belongings were stolen and shelters burned. In […]
Instituto Nice Creates Opportunities for Trans Brazilians
On July 22 Erica’s dream came true. Before a crowd of thousands she and Jorge, her partner of 16 years, received a community-funded fairytale wedding as part of the city’s second pride festival. This spectacular granting of a small wish is just one of the hundreds of practical efforts to support LGBTI Brazilians by Instituto […]
Tonga’s Leitis in Waiting
This struggle is depicted in the new feature documentary “Letis in Waiting.” Created by Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson & Kumu Hina Wong-Kalu, the film features Joey Mataele and an intrepid group of native transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance in their South Pacific Kingdom. “We want to center our work […]
Announcing Destination Equality
Funds raised via Destination Equality will go directly to the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities (CVC), a non-profit organization that supports the LGBT community across the Caribbean. Funds will be used to strengthen local organizations and be used for emergency aid when there are natural disasters. As part of their support, both companies will send information on […]
‘Visibles’ Shine a Light on LGBTI Rights in Guatemala
Visibles early work has included promoting public debates around issues relevant to the LGBTI community — equal marriage, the right to gender identity, promoting safe spaces for LGBTI individuals in business, and improving access to rights (health, education) for LGBTI groups. “To do this, we have participated in and organized discussion panels, as well as […]
‘Evening Shadows’ Give Way to Light
‘Evening Shadows’ is currently on the international festival circuit including a recent screening at Outfest in Los Angeles. In addition to a glowing audience reception, Sridhar took the opportunity to introduce a US audience to his other new project addressing the struggle for parental acceptance of LGBTI children. Sweekar – Rainbow Parents was the subject of his […]
Háttér Society Seizes Opportunity as Hungary Closes
“The government’s threats against civil society are also possibilities to make our work more well known. That is what we are doing.” –Bea Sándor Háttér Society Executive Board Member Like the United States, Poland, Austria and Italy, Hungary is in the throes of a populist upheaval including electoral campaigns centered on immigration and religious grievances. […]
Indonesia’s Waria Heroine
“We study Islam, and pray together, and share our lives,” Shinta says. “We do not choose to be transgender people, this is given by God.” The Yogyakarta community is used to the school, which runs community activities such as the free haircuts. “They accept us,” Shinta said. But the show of visibility came at the […]
The Long Struggle in the Heart of Carnival
Since 1989, it has been a member of the Ministry of Heath’s National Commission to Control AIDS, and since 1995 it has been one of the coordinators of the Secretariat of Human Rights of the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transvestites. Luiz Mott is an anthropologist and historian and founder of Grupo de Bahia. Fondly known as the dean of the […]
The Circuitous Route to Marriage Equality
“I came out as bisexual to my younger brother when I started college and he was very supportive. I was living at home at the time and had just broken up with a younger guy. I had a pager which I forgot at home when I went to work. This guy was paging me non-stop […]
Helping Namibia Out of the Closet
Following a series of hate crime attacks, members of Namibia’s LGBT community took to the streets of the capital Windhoek for a Pride march on Saturday, July 26. “We painted Windhoek on a dreary winter morning with color and the paraders represented the diversity of LGBT communities across age, class, gender and racial lines in […]
Intersectional Revolutionary
“During the past 18 years, the Venezuelan government made fun of the LGBTI community of Venezuela. They never recognized our rights and hate crimes increased 200%,” Mantilla says of the de-facto dictatorial governments of Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez. Rosmit is a leader of the Popular Will (Voluntad Popular) Party which holds 14 seats […]