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New Board members!

It is with great pleasure that we announce that our General Members’ Meeting (GMM) and elections took place successfully online in the last two weeks of September! We will share a full report of our GMM discussions soon, but in the meantime we are delighted to announce the new Board members:

Our new Board representatives were elected as follows:

Latin America:  Ana Ester replaces Tania Irias

South and Central Asia: Fr Thomas Ninan replaces Sanjay Sharma, Amir Mukambetov remains as alternate Board member for the region

South Africa:  Sedica Davids and Dumisani Dube replace Sharon Cox and the Rev Phumzile Mabizela, Tshidi Semenya remains the the third South African Board member

East and South East Asia – no election was held as there was only one candidate, Amar Alfikar, who replaces Kakay Pamaran

We did not receive any suitable applications for the Europe, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand region, and will therefore either be required to co-opt a candidate, or to hold a second, special election for this post. We will share the relevant information about this shortly.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to our outgoing Board members who have made profound and very valuable contributions to the development of GIN!! We hope and pray that we will continue to count you amongst our GIN angels going forward.

See below for the profiles of the new Board members.

America Latina / Latin America

South and Central Asia

East and South East Asia

Ana Ester​

Fr Thomas Ninan​

Amar Alfikar​

Vídeo en Youtube

Ana Ester es teóloga feminista queer-lesbiana-brasileña; Doctora y Maestra en Ciencias de la Religión por la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Minas Gerais, Brasil. Es clériga ordenada por las Iglesias de la Comunidad Metropolitana y miembro de la Iglesia Antigua de las Américas. Ana Ester es miembro de la Academia Estadounidense de Religión (AAR) y de la Asociación Brasileña de Estudios de Homocultura (ABEH). Es columnista de temas LGBTIA+ para Revista Senso. Ana Ester es una reconocida oradora en Brasil sobre temas de teología queer, habiendo participado en reuniones en comunidades de fe LGBTIA+ Cristianas (Evangélicxs pela Diversidade, Red Nacional de Grupos Católicos LGBT), Budista (Rainbow Shanga Brasil) y Judía (Gaavah Brasil). Colaboró con GIN-SSOGIE en la redacción de informes y co-organizó el seminario São Leopoldo sobre Familia y Valores Tradicionales (2019).

Ana Ester é teóloga feminista-lésbica-queer brasileira; doutora e mestra em Ciências da Religião pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Brasil. É clériga ordenada pelas Igrejas da Comunidade Metropolitana e membro da Iglesia Antigua de las Americas. Ana Ester é membro da [Read More…]

Fr Thomas Ninan is an ordained Priest of the Indian Orthodox Church (Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church). He is currently the Executive Secretary – Projects of Christian Service Agency, a service wing of the NCCI and was previously the General Coordinator of the ESHA Project of the National Council of Churches in India, located in Nagpur. The Project engages and equips churches and theological colleges in the area of human sexuality and gender identities. He also coordinates the activities of the National Ecumenical Forum for Gender and Sexual Diversities of the NCCI, a forum of passionate LGBTIQ people and allies engaging with churches and civil society. He is also a member of the WCC Reference Group for Human Sexuality.

Video on Youtube

Amar is an Indonesian transman Muslim activist, a queer theology enthusiast, with experience within social activism aiming to unpack queer-phobic languages and challenge dehumanizing narratives in theology. In 2019 Amar co-founded Jaringan Transgender Indonesia (Indonesia Transgender Network), in the same year he also published a booklet entitled “Christian-Islam Progressive Interpretation of Gender Diversity and Sexuality: A Guideline to Understand Human Body and God” published by GAYa NUSANTARA. Formerly he was a steering committee of Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR). Currently, he is selected as a Chevening scholarship awardee to study MA Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham”

South Africa

Dumisani Dube

Sedica Davids

Video on Youtube

Dumisani Dube is a Zimbabwean gay man living in South Africa. A Christian and a human rights activist, Dube has a passion in fighting for LGBTI rights across all spectrums including religious institutions. Dube has been involved in the LGBTI activism for the past 20 years. Having worked for an LGBTI organisation in Zimbabwe from 1998. He has a wide range of experience in campaigning for LGBTI rights in different religious houses. He is the Co-ordinator of Holy Trinity Catholic Church LGBTI Ministry. He is also actively involved in issues of HIV/Aids within the LGBTI and MSM sectors. He has been involved in training NGOs and religious sectors on the Protection and Prevention of Sexual Minority Refugees’ survivors of SGBV. Dube has served as treasurer of Global Network of Rainbow Catholics (GNRC) board, he remains in the board representing the African Region. Dumisani is also currently working as Editor in Chief of EXIT Newspaper, the only LGBTI newspaper in South Africa. He is the founder and Director of Dialogues for Change an NPO that seeks to facilitate dialogue with religious leaders and the sexual minorities.

Video on Youtube

Sedica identifies as a queer Muslim womxn and she is associated with the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town. As a development consultant who works with marginalised communities in sub Saharan Africa, her experience includes fundraising, strategy, and governance within the LGBTIQ+ sector. Sedica has recently provided sustainability coaching to 6 African grantees of Arcus Foundation and provided gender inclusivity coaching for staff at state owned enterprises in Nigeria. To further social inclusion and womxns’ empowerment, she raised funds for a start up project at the University of the Western Cape to capacitate domestic workers to be part of the digital economy, where she is currently employed as a researcher. Sedica served on the board of Community Arts Project from 1996 to 2006. She enjoys the minimalism of poetry and she has contributed to the following publications: To Breathe Into Another Voice: A South African Anthology of Jazz Poetry, edited by Myesha Jenkins in 2017, a short story called “On being a closet poet” appear in Our Words, Our Worlds: Writing on Black South African Women Poets, 2000-2018 and edited by Makhosazana Xaba, in 2019, and a short story titled “Viral Love” that appears in Covid Diaries: Women’s Experiences of the Pandemic, published by Imbali Academic Publishers, 2021

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