Like most Indians, Ritwik “Ritu” Chakravarty was raised with a strict notion of traditional gender roles. But for Ritu, who identifies as a trans woman, such rigidity never made sense. “My name, Ritu, means ‘weather’ or ‘season,’” she says today. “And my gender was fluid, changing like the weather.” This openness has allowed Ritu to …
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On June 1, on the eve of Thailand passing an historic law to legalize marriage equality, thousands of people hit the streets in Bangkok to celebrate queer joy, diversity and community. AJWS grantees, including TransEqual and the Foundation of Thai Transgender Alliance for Human Rights (Thai TGA), were part of a massive parade winding through …
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Masafu Okwara is a lawyer and activist in Kenya who has devoted her life to standing up for queer people who are suffering at the hands of the country’s discriminatory legal system. She works as a program officer for longtime partner National Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) in Nairobi, offering free legal aid …
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Last month, the world lost a transformational giant in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Urvashi Vaid was a pioneering social justice activist, attorney and award-winning author. She was also one of my great human rights teachers. Urvashi was bold, unflinching, driven. She brought the question of race, nationality and ethnicity into the LGBT space in the …
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As a teenager in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Los Angeles, I didn’t feel safe coming out as gay — even to my liberal Jewish family. Although strides were being made by the LGBT community, rampant homophobia kept me in the closet. When I finally came out as a young adult, I was …
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