Blog: Perspectives

In 2018, OutRight received a two-year grant from the Human Rights Initiative of Open Society Foundations to lay the groundwork for an Asia regional platform of LGBTI-centered expertise on domestic and family violence (DV/FV) – providing opportunities for ideas and advocacy exchange and linking national anti-DV/FV initiatives to a regional platform on SOGIE and gender based violence (GBV). The grant also supports two country projects – a new Myanmar initiative undertaken in partnership with OutRight’s country partner, Equality Myanmar to advocate DV/FV legal protections for LGBT people and educate LGBT communities about DV/FV, and a Phase 2 Philippines project undertaken with EnGendeRights, Inc. to improve LGBTI help-seeking for DV/FV services from local government units (barangays) that were trained in Phase 1 of the project in 2016-2018. 

A first time study on domestic and family violence against LGBT people in Myanmar was completed in 2019 and published in a report called, "Rainbow Tears." Grace Poore talks with two Myanmar LGBTI advocates Aung Myo Min & Aint Hmue, who were involved in the study. Findings will be used to push for a new law in Myanmar that prohibits violence against women and is LBT inclusive.

In this episode of OutRight TV, Head of Operations Kevin Wanzor interviews OutRight Alum Karyn Kaplan. Karyn was an HIV Program Officer for OutRight (then IGLHRC) from 1998 - 2002 and continues to fight for HIV/AIDS treatment access today. Karyn talks about OutRight being invited to speak at the first ever UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS and helping mobilize Thailand to create the Thai Drug Users’ Network (TDN), the first of its kind in the region. 

In this episode of OutRight TV, Arabic Media Coordinator Nazeeha Saeed speaks to Hanane Mettouchi, an Algerian feminist. Hanane talks about the feminist movement in Algeria, specifically in the way that they mobilize and campaign for independence, despite the backlash they face.

On July 22, 1991, a Czech Air plane carrying sixty-four American queers landed in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). We were on our way to the International Gay and Lesbian Symposium and Film Festival in the Soviet Union. It was absurd. It was exhilarating. It was mostly our fault.

In this episode of OutRight TV, Arabic Media Coordinator Nazeeha Saeed speaks to Omar Hassan. Omar is a transgender male who left Egypt in 2010 to seek asylum in the US. Omar talks about coming to terms with his identity, his first love, and navigating discrimination - even from his own family.

Gender-based violence is a phenomenon most often associated with violence perpetrated by men against women. Yet it is also the most common form of violence faced by LGBTIQ people. What leads to gender-based violence are archaic perceptions of gender roles and appearances, toxic masculinity and notions of how things “should be”. As such, anyone who somehow does not fit, or worse still, challenges what is perceived as the norm, can be a target and victim of gender-based violence (GBV).