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We invite all individuals and organisations, including advocates, activists, political, social and religious leaders, to join in our efforts and indicate their support for the São Leopoldo so that they shall be added to the list of affirming signatories.
The São Leopoldo Declaration is part of a series of joint declarations written by advocates, activists, theologians and researchers from around the world, and coordinated by GIN-SSOGIE. You may refer to the below text and our website for detailed information and/or email us if you wish to find out more about GIN-SSOGIE’s project and work around the world (simon@gin-ssogie.org)
Preamble
1. From August 12–14, 2019 in São Leopoldo, Brazil, GIN-SOGGIE, the Global Interfaith Network, convened in Latin America and the Caribbean, defenders of the rights of people of sexual and gender diversity: academics, researchers, technicians, and leaders various backgrounds and traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and the Santo Daime. People from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, and Mexico were present, and two people from other regions (Europe and Africa) accompanied the event.
2. The meeting, held at the EST Colleges University, gathered under the title Seminar on Family and Traditional Values. In line with the statements of Johannesburg (2018) and Silom (2018), we seek to reflect —from the diversity of our origins and contexts— on the strategies that, from each religious and cultural tradition, are employed by LGBTIQ+ people and various communities in their fight for dignity and rights.
Abya-Yala (Latin America) Families
3. We recognize the delicate situation of LGBTIQ + people and their families in this region and the diversity of cultural models in this territory that imply the variety of families and / or community models. We also affirm our connection with other global regions that undergo similar situations and challenges. Therefore, assuming the ethical and political imperatives that, from our traditions, propel us to join in these struggles actively, we declare:
4. That the concept of Traditional Family has been used as a political weapon of exclusion and marginalization for our families in the region. When we talk about the Traditional Family, we refer to the concept that became hegemonic as a by-product of the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century, that is, the model of the modern European bourgeois heterosexual monogamous nuclear family. This model was then exported and imposed in other regions of the planet as the only way to be a family, making invisible or condemning more than 200 modes of family relations that have structured human societies in different cultures for millennia.
5. That hegemonic sectors of the different denominations of the Christian religion, in line with the political cis–tem,[1]have built and/or deepened the exclusive and violent use of this Family model as a political weapon, attaching the adjective of “traditional” to legitimize a supposed immemorial existence that does not possess.
6. That the imposed economic and cultural cis-tems imply the increase of single-parent families as a result of violence. Most of these families are headed by an adult or teenage woman who carries out her home in conditions marked by profound inequality gaps. These and other types families as well as their survival strategies have been criminalized, invisibilized, and systematically excluded from dignified citizenship, denying them all the rights to which they are entitled, by taking the notion of Traditional Family as a hegemonic model of family relations.
7. That the trend towards the absence of public policies, demographic scientific studies, and sociological analyzes on the diversity of families in contemporary societies, promotes the invisibility, marginalization, and oppression of the whole society. Especially, it is observed among LGBTIQ+ families, of Native communities, ancestral peoples, in/migrants, and some religions, whose models of family and/or community relations do not fit into the dominant social structure.
8. That gender identity, sexual orientation, monogamy, and ethnic-racial issues, including religious diversity and spiritual practices, continue to constitute the elements and categories co-opted against people of sexual-gender diversity and their families by LGBTIQ+ anti-rights sectors.
9. That science in general —from biology to philosophy and theology— has often been kidnapped by the Kyriarchal[2]cis-tem and used to justify multiple social exclusions.
10. That while in biological terms, diversity is an inherent and constitutive part of nature; in theological terms, all that diversity composes what we call “creation.” Therefore, despising, marginalizing, excluding, rejecting, and/or hierarchizing in any sense all diversity and difference imply to go against nature and to desecrate that creation.
11. That no idea about God, the Divine, Gods, and Goddesses, as well as any “religious cis–tem,” can be considered absolute in the construction of the legal system that defines us today as political subjects. Religious plurality should lead us to the recognition of diversity at every level present in the human family.
12. That those who speak in the name of their Divinity or Divinities, and/or from any religious cis-tem, must seek the conditions for democratic dialogue that tend to balance peacefully and respectfully the diversity of interlocutors. This dialogue must primarily begin with the recognition of all families constituted in the present, recognized on equal terms and dignity. Because of this, such a conversation must be marked by the interest in defending the most vulnerable people and groups in society: women, children, racialized people, with different abilities, of sexual-gender diversity, and in / migrants, among others.
Diverse Families, Rights, and Religion: All Rights for All People!
13. That the reality of the diverse families that make up our societies must be recognized, as well as their rights, including the right to practice a religion, be it theistic, pantheistic, cosmic, among others, or to not practice any religion, such as the case of atheism and agnosticism. In this spirit, we recognize:
14. That every constituted family is dignified, and the laws of the states must recognize any act of common agreement between adults in any family constitution. So all families can enjoy both their rights and a society that includes in their education system the constant learning of their social and community duties and responsibilities.
15. That among adults in a joint agreement, every affective-sexual bond is worthy. Such dignity implies their right to procreate and establish families, and be respected in all their dignity, including their right to receive an education that values diversity. In the same way, families that do not include procreation must also be respected, dignifying the differences, the multiplicity of identities and emotional-sexual orientations, and the self-determination of people. In short, the recognition that agrees with both biology, which speaks to us about diversity, and the postulates coming from the beliefs and spiritualities, which recognize creation as a reflection of that diversity.
16. That, in theological terms, the divine is diverse. That diversity invites the Gods and Goddesses, the ancestral entities of native peoples or religions with African or Asian roots, of global religions rooted in our continent and all the sacred entities of the forest, the river, the mountain, among others, to unite and promote the diverse song of sexuality and the multifaceted and fluid expression of the gender of all people in all stages of their lives.
17. That the diversity of Divinity/ies and spiritualities is reflected in the human diversity that includes LGBTIQ+ people. At the same time, there are diverse communities in almost all religions —Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, among others— that are breaking with the oppressor cis-heteropatriarchal model —imposed by hegemonic sectors— that opposes diversity. Within these dissident communities to cis-heteropatriarchy, all identities are welcomed, and the Divinity is recognized in its uniqueness and multiplicity.
18. That our voice joins a chorus of individual and collective voices in Abya-Yala (Latin America) and the rest of the global body: Pachamama, Gaia, Earth, who awakens from her millenary dream through her daughters and sons. Our voice joins thousands of choirs and fists in the struggle, of voices that sing the end of an ancient eon, and thunders that predict the beginning of a new era where neither women nor the global belly of our Mother Earth will ever be raped again. A new eon where all people will live in harmony and respect, without violence towards people of sex-generic diversity. In that new era, each person can love another person without conditioning or limitations, except mutual respect and the search for shared happiness.
Deconstructing the Notion of “Gender Ideology”
19. Faced with the fact of the notion of “gender ideology” as the supposed “agenda” of people of sexual-gender diversity, we denounce:
20. That through the so-called “gender ideology,” political and religious fundamentalist sectors have promoted a discrediting of the feminist movement, of women’s rights, and the LGBTIQ+ community. Developed by conservative sectors —many times linked to powerful economic interests— this discourse has been used as a political weapon with dire consequences for the rights of people of sexual-gender diversity, but also of racial minorities, in/migrants, and refugees.
21. That the notion of “gender ideology” has, as its inception, the opposition to the proposals of the United Nations Conference on Population in Cairo in 1994 and the IV World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 carried out by conservative religious leaders. These leaders promoted the idea that these advances regarding women’s empowerment were “dangerous” for the Traditional Family model. In 1994 the concept of the “gender agenda” also emerged. That is, they presented social movements as destabilizing the social order due to the changes that transformed the logic of gender inequality. Subsequently, in 1997, these conservative sectors coined the notion of “gender ideology” to pejoratively refer to women’s sexual and reproductive rights.
22. That, with the advancement of policies in favor of the recognition of the rights of sexual-gender diversity people, in the last years of the 1990s, the concept of “gender agenda” duplicated with the appearance of the so-called “gay agenda.” On the other hand, the notion of “gender ideology” transformed to include people of sexual-gender diversity. As a background to these notions, apocalyptic positions that predict the end of the human species are privileged, and sexual-gender diverse people are demonized as responsible for it.
23. That those who claim to fight against “gender ideology” throughout the continent are often associated with groups that seek to impose wild and self-destructive forms of capitalism. At the same time, those who associate against “gender ideology” promote —often without knowing it— a hierarchical, violent, misogynist, racist, and phobic society.
24. That the fight against “gender ideology” promotes what it says to fight; that is, a nefarious, anti-natural, and desecrating notion of gender. According to that notion, there are only cis-heterosexual men and women in a hierarchical chain of command supported by a machista reading of sacred texts and other cultural ideas.
25. That, in addition to the above, the fight against “gender ideology” has been used as a smokescreen to cover up the ecocides and criminals politics of our rulers, overseers of the large multinational and transnational corporations. They have managed to manipulate the population leading them to believe that Eros (one of the names of divinity) and affective and sexual diversity will be the cause of the global catastrophe. They fail to see that the catastrophe is a result of the indiscriminate logging, the extractive mining, the unbridled exploitation of “nature” and of people, that is, the rape of mother-earth!
26. That, regarding the LGBTIQ+ population, the religious fundamentalist sectors have used a weak and irresponsible reading and interpretation of the sacred texts, which has been machista and cis-hetero-patriarchal. At the same time, they have used fallacious and pseudo-scientific arguments to misinform the general population. These arguments have been used for sowing fear and political purposes, and to preserve the power structures that include state militarism as well as religious and political authoritarianism, on whose basis rests the cis-hetero-patriarchal structure of “the” Traditional Family, the cornerstone of the dominating powers.
27. That, to combat this fallacious and deceptive fight against “gender ideology,” we must vindicate the discourse of and the dispute over science (democratize science). At the same time, we need to network with the social movements of sexual-gender diversity, tribal, religious communities, among others, and their transformation processes. Democratizing science, politics, religion, and theology constitutes an indispensable step to truly combat the so-called notion of “gender ideology” as it is built and propelled by the LGBTIQ+ anti-rights sectors. That is to say, these sectors produce an enemy and fight against it while imposing it on the shoulders of people of sexual-gender diversity. It is time to unmask this perverse dynamic through which the LGBTIQ+ anti-rights sectors build sexual-gender diversity people as an enemy that needs to be fought.
Colonialism, Nation-State, and Capitalism
28. We understand that all theology or all God-talk is also a political act; that is, that every discourse about God, the Sacred, or the Holy, has political consequences. Therefore, if the notion of religion is not radically democratized, the idea of the political will continue to be cis-hetero-patriarchal, misogynist, machista, LGBTIQ+ phobic, hierarchical, anti-democratic, ecocidal, and genocidal. Until today, that has been the tone of the majority of God-talk. We also assert that there have always been progressive sectors that have resisted that hegemony. We are part of that resistance! Therefore, we affirm:
29. That in the vortex of our recent common history (1492 CE), a political-religious cis–tem was progressively and increasingly imposed through “cross and sword.”
30. That, little by little, we have discovered that the sacred texts, especially the Christian Bible, have been “misread” to us. We have learned to read laws and theologies, and we have learned to interpret them, and now we know that codes and verses have been used against us. We have realized that jurisprudence and theologies have silenced our rights and that the divinity cannot be enclosed in a single image! If we are all and everything —as affirmed by most religions, philosophies, cultures, and beliefs represented on the continent— a reflection of an immeasurable and ineffable creative love, then such love must be as diverse as its reflection.
31. We are gays, transvestites, sissies, males, sapatão, caminhoeiras, veados, maricas, lesbians, transgender, intersex, asexual, hookers, and prostitutes. We are indecent, free, and/or wrong libertarian workers. We are also nuns, priests, ministers, mais/pais de santas/os, rabbis, teachers, and sheiks. We are bisexual, atheist, queer, and fagots well-loved by God! We are she/males and devotees in boots, both tops and bottoms, co-creating and being created in the image of a plural divinity that celebrates our existence. We are people of faith!
32. That we are black and Afro-descendants, Native peoples, diasporas from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania, LGBTIQ people+ part of the People of the Earth. We are mestizo people, at the border; we are white allies, the creative power, the diverse force. We have come to this world to transform. We do not fight against divinity, diversity, or democracy, but against those who seek to impose a hegemony that curtails the rights of every person who does not fit into their reductionist social constructions.
33. That, in addition to being lay or secular, nation-states must be plurinational and multi-religious. They must promote equal conditions between the dominant religion in Latin America, namely Christianity in all its branches, and all millenary, ancestral traditions of Abya-Yala or imported to our lands through slavery, colonization, mission, or in/migration. They must value the fruitful mix that has given birth on the continent to various expressions of cultural and religious human resistance.
34. That we unite all our expressions of faith, beliefs, and spiritualities, and all our energies towards a global change and a reorganization of the patterns of power in which love, justice, and wisdom could guide us better. In this rearrangement, the democratization of the divinity/ies will reveal all the previously silenced phases of human experience, which in theological terms is the experience of the divine. All experiences of Native peoples, people of African descent, in/migrants, and LGBTIQ+ communities of resistance, creativity, and re-existence, are a sign of the diverse Divinity in the apocalypse (revelation). We will not take a step back, because the threat is the self-destruction promoted by the capitalist, imperial cis-hetero-patriarchal cis-tem.
35. That the dialogue between liberation Christianity and other religions, feminisms, and social, urban, and rural movements, the different and transversal movements of sexual-gender diversity people and religions, and the Native movements of the region, must multiply the possibilities to plan strategies. Those strategies aim to push back that atrocious cis-tem that tortures, contaminates, poisons, murders with impunity, prohibits love, uses God to exclude people, and justifies the desecration of Mother Earth.
Towards a Present in Equality and Respect
36. The attendees to the Seminar on Family and Traditional Values are convinced that peace will seduce us and love will finally triumph. Therefore:
37. We ask the different religious and non-religious institutions, human rights organizations, actors in the field of sexual-gender diversity, in short, all people of peace and good-will who are looking for a better world, to include religion and spirituality in the debate about our society and the reconstruction of our world. That seeks the understanding of all people from their tangible faith and life practices, their sexual-gender diversity, and their multiple types of families.
38. We believe that all the peoples of Abya-Yala have been violated since the European invasion of the fifteenth century, and all our contemporary societies in the region suffer until today the consequences of it. For in addition to the dispossession of lands, and the continuous displacement or annihilation of the Native peoples, the metropolis, mestizasand mixed in their ethnic-racial composition, reflect the multiple hierarchies and inequalities of aforetimes, the cultural dispossession, and the doctrinal imposition that seeks to erase our deep and diverse roots. More than 500 years have passed, and we perceive the same discourse, the same outrage, the same logic and patterns of power and domination, only that today the risk is of self-destruction.
39. We denounce that the sectors that oppose the rights of all people — especially sexual-gender diverse people— have used biased, antidemocratic, authoritative, and decontextualized interpretations of religious traditions, especially Christianity. Likewise, political or religious fundamentalisms defend a global sexual policy that denies the sciences and deny the discourses —academic or not— of diverse communities to impose an agenda that allies with the dominant sectors of society, and their elite project of city, country, or world. Such a project sustains an endemic structure of many cases of abuse and atrocities that revolve around the non-respect of the multiple, different, and diverse identities of the human and non-human community.
40. We defend and promote a diverse, multiple, plural world, with ample space for differences in which both traditional monogamous marriage and any other form of family, marital, and/or sexual love have recognition and possibilities of flowering, growth, and social evolution. We promote the search and the struggle for an economic and social model that frees humanity and does not enslave or kill it slowly with self-destructive social dynamics. From our beliefs and spiritualities and our sexual-gender diversity, we commit ourselves to continue working for a present in which the extension and deepening of the rights of all people lead us to a new, free, and just world.
[1] The term “cis” refers to people who identify with the sex that has been imposed on them at birth.
[2] The term, coined by the German-American theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, seeks to include, beyond the binary idea of cis-hetero-patriarchy, the concept of a pattern of colonial-lordship domination, in which both gender and race constitute fluid elements in the construction of oppression. In other words, in the kyriarchy, white women or subaltern cis-gender men, for example, can also be located on the oppressive side.
Developed and affirmed by the following signatories:
Mark Grenville, South Africa (6th Oct 2020)
GIN is an international membership-led non-profit organisation that promotes safety and inclusion for all people of faith and spirituality, especially for people that often are discriminated against on the basis of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression. GIN advocates for safe spaces, policy inclusion and for the support and acceptance of all sexual and gender minorities for whom their faith is an important life-giving source.
Speaker on the panel of the event “Ethics of Reciprocity Event“, October 2017, New York
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Reclaiming Faith and Family by the LGBTIQ Community“, March 2018, CSW62, New York
Moderator on the panel of the side event “Religious Communities Affirming LGBTI People Around the World“, July 2019, HRC41, Geneva
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Recognition and Respect for Family Diversity“, July 2020, HRC44, Geneva (online).
Tuisina is a survivor of institutionalised discrimination, spousal gender based violence, racial profiling, and trans violence, discrimination and persecution. She lives her truth as a proud faafafine and trans woman of colour from Samoa, a human rights defender and a former corporate In-house Counsel. She practices in trade marks and intellectual property law, and holds a Masters of Intellectual Property Law and a Masters of Law (Inhouse Practice). Born, raised and educated in Samoa, she currently works and lives in Brisbane Australia as a single parent with two adopted sons. She has over 15 years of volunteer experience in international NGOs where she leverages her specific skillset from the private sector and corporate Australia to help NGO’s she is involved with. Not only is she a fierce advocate for LGBTIQ communities with a focus on the intersectionality of indigenous, trans, interfaith, environment, and economic justice issues, she navigates her Catholic core in her absolute belief in the Gospel of Matthew: 7 where “by their fruits you will recognise” – seeding and planting fruits of safety, refuge and salvation, by sharing her truth, her journey. She is a former Co-Chair of GIN-SSOGIE helping it to flesh out the need as an LGBTIQ affirming space for different theologies for our rainbow communities across the globe, believing this to be especially ever more so important in the current times when our LGBTIQ communities all over the world face increasing and continued State sponsored criminalisation, violence, discrimination, and oppression justified by religious rhetoric and persecution and cultural and customary laws.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Reclaiming Faith and Family by the LGBTIQ Community”, March 2018, CSW62, New York
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Pre-Colonial Societies on gender and Sexuality“, September 2019, HRC42, Geneva
Yvette Abrahams holds a Ph. D. in Economic History from the University of Cape Town. She has consulted for government and various NGO’s on issues relating to gender equality in policy and practice, while publishing widely both locally and internationally on gender equality, queer theory, climate change as well as the history of First Nations South Africans. She served as Commissioner For Gender Equality where she headed their programmes on poverty, energy and climate change. She subsequently worked as Advisor to Project 90 by 2030, an NGO which focuses on food security, energy, and promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency entrepreneurship in the context of climate change, She served as Commissioner on the University of Cape Town’s Institutional Reconciliation and Truth Commission. Today she runs a small business making organic carbon neutral soaps and body products on her smallholding east of Cape Town. Her blog is www.khoelife.com, and she can be contacted at khibomsis@gmail.com
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Pre-Colonial Societies on gender and Sexuality“, September 2019, HRC42, Geneva
Executive Director, Blue Diamond Society (BDS)
President of the Board, Federation of Sexual and Gender Minorities Nepal (FSGMN)
Former Co Chair of ILGA Asia
Founder Member of the Board, Asia-Pacific Transgender Network (APTN)
Manisha Dhakal is transgender womsn (male to female). She is LGBTI rights activist from Nepal. She has been involved in Nepal’s LGBTI rights movement since 2001 through different projects on HIV/AIDS, human rights activism, constitutional campaigns, advocacy, capacity building, academic research, and others. Manisha is currently the Executive Director of Blue Diamond Society (BDS), Nepal’s leading LGBT rights organization. Regionally, Manisha is one of the founder member of the Asia-Pacific Transgender Network representing South Asia. She is one of the former Co-Chair of ILGA Asia Board. She is also board member of IRGT; A Global Network for Trans women and HIV. She was awarded the “Nai Ram Laxmi” National award in 2010 for her contributions to the LGBTmovement in Nepal. On 21 December 2007, the Supreme Court of Nepal issued a landmark verdict directing the government to enact laws enabling equal rights to LGBT citizens. Manisha was involved in court pleadings on this case on behalf of LGBT people before the SupremeCourt. Manisha possesses a master’s degree in finance from Shanker Dev Collage, Kathmandu.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Pre-Colonial Societies on gender and Sexuality“, September 2019, HRC42, Geneva
A French Muslim born in Algeria in 1977, Imam Ludovic is known as Europe’s ‘gay imam’. An acknowledged intellectual, he is an expert on the Quran and an AIDS activist. As a young child he was delicate, slender and shy. His father called him a pansy and eventually stopped even looking at him. At school in France teachers would ask if he was a boy or a girl. When he was 12 years old he turned to a mosque for answers and became a staunch Muslim. He later entered a Salafist brotherhood and studied in Mecca to become an imam.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Religious Communities Affirming LGBTI People Around the World“, July 2019, HRC41, Geneva
Bochra Bel Haj Hmida is a Lawyer at the Court of Cassation, co-founder of multiple associations and networks, activist for human rights and women’s rights, former President of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, former member of the Assembly of People’s Representatives, chairwoman of the Committee on Individual Liberties and Equality, Member of several regional and international networks including Chair of the Committee on Violence against Women G7.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Religious Communities Affirming LGBTI People Around the World“, July 2019, HRC41, Geneva
Fr Thomas Ninan is a Priest of the Indian Orthodox Church, working with the National Council of Churches in India, Nagpur as the General Coordinator of the ESHA Project which engages churches, theological colleges and other faith communities across India in the area of Human Sexuality and Gender Identities. As Coordinator of the National Ecumenical Forum for Gender and Sexual Diversities of the NCCI, he engages a passionate group of champions, striving for a gender neutral, inclusive society in India. He is a member of the World Council of Churches Reference Group on Human Sexuality and the Global Interfaith Network.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Religious Communities Affirming LGBTI People Around the World“, July 2019, HRC41, Geneva
Ankit Bhuptani is an LGBTQI Rights activist, seasoned Public Speaker and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) professional with 10+ years of experience in the diversity and inclusion space, Recognized for working well with people from different backgrounds with a primary focus on LGBTQIA+ community. He was awarded ‘Global Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Award’ by the World HRD Congress. Ankit has been a member of core committee organisation Mumbai LGBT Pride since 2011. He is passionately working for inclusion in education, workplace & faith through the LGBTQI lens. He founded ‘Queer Hindu Alliance’ which connects to dots between Hinduism & LGBTQIA+ Community from an Indic lens
Speaker on the panel organised by the UN Task Force on Religion – led by Office for Prevention of Genocide with UN Women; UNAIDS and UNFPA; ACT Alliance – “Preventing gender based violence: the role of religious actors”, March 2019, CSW63, New York
Rev Nokuthula Dhladhla is an ambassador of Global Interfaith Network (GIN), works for South African Network of Religious leaders living with or aftected by Hiv and Aids ( SANERELA+),as a project officer for the UN women trust project. She is a member of the Circle of Concerned African Theologians Women, and a committee member of Association of Christian Religion Practitioners and a founding member of the association called Ashes to Purpose: a healing space for lesbians and gender non conforming people to integrate sexuality and spirituality. The life and experiences of Rev Nokuthula have been documented in several book chapters, and documentaries, including Miriam Dancing by Elise van Wyk, to have and to hold by Melanie Judge, Faces and Phases by Zanele Moholi and different magazines DVD and also at an exhibition “Journeys of Faith – Navigating Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity” held at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. She has a Diploma in Theology and creates Gender Justice theological resources. Nokuthula has participated in a wide range of religious dialogues, especially with faith leaders working towards greater understanding and tolerance for LGBTIQ people in the faith sector. In 2019 alone, she has spoken at the Commission on the Status of Women and the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Religious Communities Affirming LGBTI People Around the World“, July 2019, HRC41, Geneva
Yulia Dwi Andriyanti (She/her), is based in Indonesia. She is a queer Muslim feminist. She co-founded Youth Interfaith Forum on Sexuality (YIFoS) in 2010, an inclusive space for young people from diverse faith and sexual identities to build dialogue on diverse faith and sexuality. She documented her struggle as Muslim and queer woman through a collective film making, titled Children of Srikandi (2012). She is also a co-founder of Qbukatabu (2017), a feminist and queer collective. She loves to archive feminist-queer activism and thoughts; to practice self-care and collective well-being; and to experiencing a vegan life.
Prepared an official statement for the Interactive Dialogue of the Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, March 2019, HRC40, Geneva.
Prepared a statement during the 44th HRC session, on the worsening human rights situation in the world due to Covid-19 (June/July 2020).
Speaker on the panel of the side event “The impact of faith on LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic“, September 2020, HRC45, Geneva (online).
Speaker during Outright International’s webinar “Connecting Faith and Advocacy” May 2020, Virtual
Ishmael Bahati is a Kenyan citizen. He is a social activist and a Human Rights Defender for the Sexual and Gender Minorities. He is a holder of a degree in Developmental studies, Religious studies among others. Ishmael is a trained public speaker under the speaker’s bureau of the Global Interfaith Network and also holds different positions locally and internationally, such as a board member of the Gay and Lesbians Coalition of Kenya and Global interfaith network.
His Human Rights work has been recognized by the Inner Circle (Currently Al-Fitrah Foundation) in South Africa and the Defenders Coalition of Kenya (Formerly National Coalition for Human Rights Defenders).
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Religious Communities Affirming LGBTI People Around the World“, July 2019, HRC41, Geneva
Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes, C.M., is the Founder and Executive Director of Rainbow Faith and Freedom, and Senior Pastor Emeritus of Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, where he was at the forefront of ministry to the LGBTIQ2S community for over 40 years. On January 14, 2001, he officiated at the first legal same sex marriages in the world. He received the Order of Canada, the Order of New Brunswick and three honorary degrees for his stand on social justice and human rights within the LGBTIQ2S communities.
Speaker on the panel “Gendering the debate on religious ‘hate speech’: What are gender-responsive strategies to tackle hatred on the basis of religion or belief? (organised by by Article 19), March 2019, CSW63, New York
Lini Zurlia is an Indonesian queer feminist activist. She has been involved with issues of women and sexuality, democracy, and human rights in Indonesia for many years. Graduated from Jakarta Islamic University. She was an advocacy co-ordinator for Arus Pelangi (Indonesian LGBTI Federation) and now she is serving us as an advocacy officer. Aside from her daily responsibility work with us, she is also a member of Arus Pelangi Board of Advisory until 2022, member of PurpleCode Collective and the co-founder and festival director of 16Film Festival.’
Speaker on the panel of the side event “The impact of faith on LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic“, September 2020, HRC45, Geneva (online).
Pearl is director of Queer Theology Academy (Hong Kong) that publishes queer theologies in Chinese contexts, and promotes LGBTIQ+ rights in Hong Kong and Asia through advocacy and education. She is deputy convener of “Covenant of the Rainbow: Campaign toward a Truly Inclusive Church” in Hong Kong, that aims to stop discrimination against LGBTIQ+ in churches and religious communities. Pearl is a member of the Global LGBT+ Coalition Group, and also a regular speaker in international conferences on human sexuality, queer theologies, and Asia-Pacific Rainbow Families. Pearl was also one of the eleven global LGBTI religious leaders invited to speak at the 2017 Ethics of Reciprocity Conference at United Nations headquarters, New York, co-organised by GIN-SSOGIE. Pearl Wong holds a degree of bachelor of Divinity from the Divinity School of Chung Chi College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “The impact of faith on LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic“, September 2020, HRC45, Geneva (online).
Dr Leli Darling, Indigenous Fijian Transgender woman, a medical doctor, founder of Transgenders Fiji Network, an overseer organisation for the Human Rights of Trans/Queer/Non-binary/Gender diverse Fijians.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “The impact of faith on LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic“, September 2020, HRC45, Geneva (online).
Noor Sultan has been an activist for 10 years in the area of sexual orientation and gender identity in Egypt and Sudan. In 2010, her co- founded Bedayaa Organization. She worked as Networking and Communication director at Bedayaa Organization for five years before she was elected to be the Executive Director of Bedayaa Organization in 2016. In the last two years Noor contributed to the advocacy movement in Egypt by becoming the general coordinator of the Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations. In December 2017, Noor awarded the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic for her great work that influenced the LGBTI movement in Egypt. Noor Sultan is also part of GIN-SSOGIE’s Board.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “The impact of faith on LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic“, September 2020, HRC45, Geneva (online).
Misza Cherniak is an Orthodox Christian and LGBTI+ activist, musician and interpreter, born in Russia and living in Poland. He is a board member of the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups involved in its advocacy, research and capacity-building work. In 2016, he sent an open letter on behalf of Orthodox LGBT persons to the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, pleading the Church leadership to acknowledge the existence of LGBT persons within the Church and establishing a dialogue.
Statements made during the Human Rights Council session: during the 45th HRC session, in the interactive dialogue with the indigenous special rapporteur (September 2020), and during the 44th HRC session, on the human rights situation in the Philippines (June/July 2020).
Speaker on the panel of the side event “The impact of faith on LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic“, September 2020, HRC45, Geneva (online).
Rev Kakay Pamaran is a pastor, ecumenist, peace activist, gender justice advocate, and Bible teacher. She currently serves as Coordinator of Union Theological Seminary’s Field Education Office in Dasmarinas in the Philippines. She is also adjunct professor in Scripture and Interpretation. She has a degree in Psychology from Silliman University and a Master of Divinity from UTS. She is completing her course work for her Master of Theology in New Testament and Historical Jesus Research, and convenes the Center for Gender and Sexuality of the Union Theological Seminary.
Statements made during the Human Rights Council session: and during the 44th HRC session, on the worsening human rights situation in the world due to Covid-19 (June/July 2020).
Fidel Mauricio Ramirez Doctor and Master in Education, Human Rights and Citizenship. BA in Philosophy, BA in Theology. Expert in gender, sexualities and religion. Roman Catholic, leader of movements for the recognition and respect of people with diverse genders and sexual orientations in their faith communities.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “The impact of faith on LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic“, September 2020, HRC45, Geneva (online).
Nicolas Panotto, Argentinean based in Chile. Theologian and PhD in Social Sciences. Director and Founder of the Multidisciplinary Study Group on Religion and Public Advocacy (GEMRIP).
Speaker on the panel of the side event “The impact of faith on LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic“, September 2020, HRC45, Geneva (online).
Tarek is a sexual and bodily rights activist from Beirut, Lebanon advocating for the rights and protection of LGBT individuals and groups in the MENA region. He is the Executive Director of Helem, the first LGBT rights organization in the Arab world, founded in Beirut in 2001. Tarek is a specialist on teaching adaptive leadership and is working towards starting the first leadership laboratory in the MENA region focused exclusively on youth, civil society, civic engagement, and conflict transformation. He is a Ford Foundation global fellow, an ELI fellow at the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, and was a human rights fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard. Tarek has previously worked as communications manager and director of strategic planning for the MENA region at both the Brookings Institution and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace MENA offices respectively. He obtained his BA from the American University of Beirut, his MALD in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and his MPA in leadership and advocacy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He currently lives in Beirut with his partner and three cats, all of whom are adorable.
Speaker on the panel of the side event “Recognition and Respect for Family Diversity“, July 2020, HRC44, Geneva (online). Dr Nontando Hadebe is a woman theologian, Research Fellow at the Department of Historical and Constructive Theology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, and chair of the South African Chapter of the Circle of Concerned African Women theologians in South Africa. She is typical African with multiple ethnic backgrounds across countries – Botswana, Ndebele Zimbabwe and ancestors South Africa.