As dusk turned to night in Chiang Mai some weeks ago, I felt adrenaline coursing through my body as thousands of people poured onto the streets of this city in northern Thailand for the country’s biggest LGBTQI pride march in a decade. At the same time, my mind was flooded with memories of Pride …
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“You may have heard that Thailand is a paradise for transgender people. We have the beauty queens. The cabaret shows. But you don’t see the negative side of how we’re treated. And I want to make sure my sisters don’t experience what I went through.” It’s a Saturday in central Bangkok, and Jetsada Taesombat, better …
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Naomi had only been volunteering with COMCAVIS Trans, an organization that defends the rights of transgender people in El Salvador, for about a month when she ran into trouble with the law. “Out of economic necessity,” she says, “I had a legal issue that led me to be incarcerated.” But as a trans woman in …
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I am elated today because our grantee partners in India have achieved an historic victory for LGBTQI+ rights. Earlier today, the Indian Supreme Court struck down a colonial-era law that criminalized consensual sex between same sex adults. As India is home to nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, this single ruling removes the threat of …
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I came out to my father in 1998, over the phone. He was in Bombay, India. I was in Denver, Colorado. The first thing he said to me, without missing a beat, was: “I’m proud that you’ve decided to not live a lie.” The very next thing he said was: “I wish you’d never told …
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