The first Global Feminist LBQ Women*s Conference is organized by a collective working group of 22 LBQ women* activists from across all regions of the world.
The first Global Feminist LBQ Women*s Conference is organized by a collective working group of 22 LBQ women* activists from across all regions of the world. It aims to create a space for activists and advocates to come together, share knowledge, exchange strategies, strengthen connections, mobilize resources, and take the lead in building a global LBQ women*s movement with the capacity to influence the world agenda on human rights, health, and development.
Aleanca (Alliance Against Discrimination of LGBT people) formed in 2009 as a voluntary youth organization working to create a free, open and equal Albanian society that embraces diversity.
Aleanca (Alliance Against Discrimination of LGBT people) formed in 2009 as a voluntary youth organization working to create a free, open and equal Albanian society that embraces diversity. Pro-LGBT formed in 2010 to promote and advocate for the advancement of LGBT rights in Albania. The two organizations work frequently and closely together, Aleanca working to build a strong base of LGBTQ people and activists, and Pro-LGBT serving as a watchdog and ‘public relations’ branch of the LGBT movement in Albania. Both organizations worked together to pass a national anti-discrimination law in 2010 and subsequent establishment of the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination as the institution responsible for ensuring effective implementation of the law. Jointly they also formed “STREHA,” the first residential center in Albania that supports homeless LGBTQ youth 18-25 years old. STREHA also offers other services, life skills courses, and other leadership opportunities. Both organizations are actively involved in advocacy for inclusive laws and policies. Jointly they also formed “STREHA,” the first residential center in Albania that supports homeless LGBTQ youth 18-25 years old. STREHA also offers other services, life skills courses and other leadership opportunities.
“Streha” shelter is the first non-public residential center in Southern Eastern Europe, which helps the LGBTI community in emergency of housing and accommodation. It started as a pilot project of Alliance against LGBT Discrimination in collaboration with United ProLGBT Cause organizations since opening its door in December 2014.
Since November 2015 “Streha” is active as an independent NGO. This shelter is a concrete transition service for all LGBTI young people from age 18 to 25 that face violence and discrimination from family and/or local community (usually at the stage of coming out) making their life impossible to live. Cases under 18 years old and over 25 years old are subject of consideration of a case by case basis based on the assessment of the professional staff at the Shelter.
Streha provides services of reintegration to at risk homeless LGBT through 8 staff members, in total 24 hours, 7 days a week. “Streha” shelter has a capacity of eight beds and aims to be a service and assistance to at risk homeless LGBTI youth at national level.
A multidisciplinary team of the “Streha” shelter makes the initial assessment of each case, case by case and accepts the requirement for housing in the “Streha” shelter based on a clear protocol and very rigorous, designed in accordance with national standards with the assistance of USAID and Assist Impact, of the existing shelters in Albania and especially with the assistance of the shelters network of “Albert Kennedy Trust” in Great Britain that works since 1989.
Streha has professional staff to serve the LGBTI Community beyond Albania based on case management treated so far.
OTD works for the human rights of trans people (transgender, transsexuals, transvestites and intersex) through different political and cultural interventions.
OTD works for the human rights of trans people (transgender, transsexuals, transvestites and intersex) through different political and cultural interventions. OTD fights for education, jobs, economic justice, access to decent and respectful public health care policies that value self-determined gender identities. OTD seeks recognition of the right of everyone to gender identity and to reduce discrimination and violence against transgender people in Chile. OTD is currently fighting for a law on gender identity that is inclusive for all trans people, including youth. (Photo credit: OTD at Pride March 2016. Armando Escoffier.)
*** En Español***
La Asociación OTD trabaja por los derechos humanos de las personas trans (transgénero, transexuales, travestis e intersexuales) a través de diferentes intervenciones políticas y culturales. La Asociación OTD lucha por la educación, trabajos, la justicia económica, el acceso a una atención médica digna y políticas públicas respetuosas que eleven la identidad de género de lxs miembros de la comunidad. Busca lograr el reconocimiento del derecho de cada quien a la identidad de género y reducir la discriminación y la violencia contra las personas trans en Chile, y actualmente se encuentra luchando por una ley de identidad de género que sea inclusiva para todas las personas trans, incluyendo la juventud.
(Crédito: OTD en marcha PRIDE 2016. Armando Escoffier.)
Caribe Afirmativo’s community has one of the highest levels of inequality, violence and lack of opportunities for its inhabitants, including violence and discrimination against LGBT communities.
Caribe Afirmativo, founded in 2009, is an LGBT organization working in the Caribbean region of Colombia, with offices in Cartagena and Santa Marta. Caribe Afirmativo’s community has one of the highest levels of inequality, violence and lack of opportunities for its inhabitants, including violence and discrimination against LGBT communities. Caribe Afirmativo documents and monitors human rights violations of LGBT people and provides support to individuals who file complaints to demand justice at the local, regional and international levels. They conduct research on lesbophobia, homophobia and transphobia and has produced work on race and racism in the Caribbean. They also work to insert the voices of LGBT communities in post-conflict processes. Finally, they use art and activism as strategies to raise visibility and create participatory spaces for community development, including supporting the popular theatrical group led by transgender women in Cartagena. *** En Español*** Caribe Afirmativo, fundada en 2009, es una organización LGBT que trabaja en la región caribeña de Colombia, con oficinas en Cartagena y Santa Marta. El Caribe colombiano tiene uno de los niveles más altos de desigualdad, violencia y falta de oportunidades para sus habitantes, incluyendo la violencia y la discriminación contra las comunidades LGBT. Caribe Afirmativo documenta y monitorea rigurosamente las violaciones de derechos humanos de las personas LGBT y ofrece acompañamiento a personas que someten quejas para exigir justicia a nivel local, regional e internacional. Realiza investigaciones sobre la lesbofobia, la homofobia y la transfobia y ha producido trabajo sobre la raza y el racismo en el Caribe. También trabaja para insertar las voces de las comunidades LGBT en procesos posteriores a conflictos. Por último, usa el arte y el activismo como estrategias para elevar la visibilidad y crear espacios participativos para el desarrollo comunitario, incluyendo apoyar al grupo teatral popular liderado por mujeres trans “Transformando” en Cartagena.
Togetherness for Equality and Action (TEA) is a lesbian, queer and bisexual women led group founded in 2013 and committed to building a sustainable and inclusive LBT movement in Thailand.
Togetherness for Equality and Action (TEA) is a lesbian, queer and bisexual women led group founded in 2013 and committed to building a sustainable and inclusive LBT movement in Thailand. They aim to cultivate and empower LBT youth activists from traditionally marginalized communities (low-income, rural, disabled, and from ethnic groups and religious minorities) through capacity-building trainings and curriculum development. Their core activities include a story documentation project to raise public awareness around LBTI rights in marginalized communities, and facilitating activist building programs to provide resources and opportunities for LGTI youth. Through their story project they continue to collect stories and experiences of LBT communities to gather data that can disseminated via research articles and other media outlets, such as online blogs, and infographics. Through their activist building trainings, they are engaging youth from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, from little or zero experience, to seasoned activists.
Detroit REPRESENT! is a collective of LGBTQ youth of color from Detroit with the mission to inspire and support media organizing.
Detroit REPRESENT! is a collective of LGBTQ youth of color from Detroit with the mission to inspire and support media organizing in order to resist erasure, transform oppression, and create authentic portrayals of their communities, their lives, and themselves. The group started in 2011 when a group of LGBTQ youth of color from all corners of the city started gathering at a nearby church every week to teach each other photography, and discuss the oppression within mainstream media. Detroit REPRESENT! uses collaborative community media production as a tool of leadership development amongst LGBTQ youth of color as they become community organizers. The media that that members and participants produce then also increases LGBTQ youth visibility and understanding in Detroit and the region. Detroit REPRESENT! has been youth-conceived and youth-led and has always been made up of the most marginalized, specifically LGBTQ youth of color.
This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.
Diverse Voices and Action for Equality started in 2011 to formalize a growing grassroots LBTI peer support group in Suva, Fiji.
Diverse Voices and Action for Equality started in 2011 to formalize a growing grassroots LBTI peer support group in Suva, Fiji. DIVA has since grown to become a feminist Fiji national collective and network of high need and marginalised lesbians, bisexual women, trans masculine and gender nonconforming and intersex women and people working from local to global, on issues of human rights and social justice, including gender and sexual, social, economic and ecological justice. We prioritise work in Fiji and Pacific small island states. DIVA for Equality works from a strong south feminist intersectional and interlinkage analysis – identifying and advocating on lived realities of LBTI women and people, both as a collective and community, and through joint work with other feminists, wider women-led groups and community groups, civil society groups and social movements, and Pacific governments as able – toward recognition, protection and advancement of sexual rights, human rights, gender justice and social, economic, ecological and climate justice. DIVA for Equality provides practical urgent action and support to lesbian, bisexual women and transgender masculine and gender nonconforming women and people. We strengthen, create and facilitate safe spaces to organise, articulate constituency positions, build stronger community led hubs and networks, and increase levels of constructive collaboration in wider civil society and social movements. We struggle for realisation of universal human rights, access to justice and liberation, and resist all marginalisation, discrimination and violence.
Intersex Ísland was founded June 2014 to tackle the utter lack of visibility of intersex people in Iceland.
Intersex Ísland was founded June 2014. The association is working closely with OII Europe, one of the OII Europe Co–Chair being from Intersex Ísland. They also have several OII Europe brochures translated in Icelandic. They work closely with Samtakanna 78, the national queer organization, and with Amnesty International in a campaign for intersex rights in Iceland. They do awareness raising through media interviews and public screenings, as well as marches.
The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD) is intentionally an all-volunteer, multiracial, mixed-gender organization, representative of the myriad communities that comprise LGBTQ and Muslim.
The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD) is intentionally an all-volunteer, multiracial, mixed-gender organization, representative of the myriad communities that comprise LGBTQ and Muslim. MASGD works to support, empower, and connect LGBTQ Muslims, while challenging root causes of oppression, misogyny, and xenophobia. MASGD aims to increase the acceptance of gender and sexual diversity within Muslim communities, and to promote a progressive understanding of Islam that is centered on inclusion, justice, and equality. LGBTQ Muslims are margins within the margins at the intersections of xenophobia, Islamophobia, gender-based oppression, racism (including colorism and anti-Black bias), and patriarchy.
This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.
IntersexUK is a volunteer-run organization led by two intersex women. It was founded in 2010 to prevent irreversible medical and surgical abuses being inflicted on intersex bodied children.
IntersexUK (iUK) was Co Founded by two intersex VSC women, Holly Greenberry and Dawn Vago, with advocate support in 2010 (Holly and Dawn are parents also). iUK has grown over the last 12 years. The team now includes Jeanette (Uk’s most senior public intersex speaker and activist), and Joe (who was the UK’s youngest Intersex person to speak out publicly). All of the iUK team have a strong ethos and focus to also engage and work with independent intersectional intersex people and support creating spaces for intersex / VSC inclusion and voices.
The key focus of iUK’s work is to deliver fact, testimony, demands and consultancy with a focus on legislation and policy by means of expert education. iUK have consulted and reported as lead stakeholders in cross party settings, and with various government departments, as well having worked in unity on numerous UN projects. A fundamental goal of iUK is to support cross party understanding of intersex / VSC issues and to recognise and enact the need for bodily autonomy and bodily integrity for all intersex bodied people with a variation of sex characteristic (VSC). They focus heavily on unity, advocacy and stakeholder consultation delivering Intersex / VSC demands based on co authored International demands statements. iUK have also delivered numerous co authored reports to UN treaty bodies regarding the UK’s approach to ‘managing’ intersex / VSC people (especially children / minors). They deliver fundamentally important education across all levels, including working with academics, guest lecturing at universities and delivering expert key note speakers, forums, workshops and panels. Their work with the media is extensive. They administer some vital online support groups, as well as offer one to one peer support to intersex individuals as well as to parents and carers. They work with and are advocated by many professionals, parliamentarians, organisations: women’s, children’s, mens and LGBT+ organisations to list but a few.
