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- OutRight's new Emergencies Researcher, Lester Feder, is interviewing queer Afghans about the human rights violations they have experienced and risks they face after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Lester has identified a number of human rights violations including targeted arrests, raids, and cases of sexual violence. We will be publishing some of our research and are in conversation with partner organizations about collaborating to effectively advocate with the international community on steps it should take to protect the rights of both LGBTIQ Afghans who have fled Afghanistan and those who remain in the country.
- History was made on 18 November when the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution, co-sponsored by 87 states, on "strengthening the role of the UN in the promotion of democratization and enhancing periodic and genuine elections," with an explicit reference to sexual orientation and gender identity as part of Member States' obligations to ensure access to free and fair elections. This is only the second General Assembly resolution ever to mention SOGI (the first was around extrajudicial executions), and it didn't come without a fight. OutRight's UN team worked hard to ensure the reference made it into the resolution and against attempts to remove it. Read our press release here.
- OutRight is assessing almost 300 applications received in the latest call to the COVID-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund. The latest call focused on vaccine access and awareness in LGBTIQ communities. We intend to issue the first grants by the end of the year.
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Neela Ghoshal
Neela Ghoshal (any pronouns) is OutRight's new Director of Law and Policy. In this role, Neela oversees OutRight's research, United Nations and Caribbean program teams. Neela joins OutRight after 14 years at Human Rights Watch, where they started as a Researcher in the Africa Division focused on Burundi and Kenya, later becoming Senior Researcher in the LGBT Rights Program, and departing as its Associate LGBT Rights Program Director.
Neela holds a bachelor's in social justice studies from the University of Michigan and a master's in international relations from Yale University, and speaks English, Spanish, French and Kiswahili. They enjoy growing vegetables, cooking, singing Hamilton at karaoke, and writing about feminist parenting.
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- Newsy interviewed Acting Executive Director Maria Sjödin live about Marvel's new movie “Eternals”, which, for the first time features an openly gay superher and his family. Maria talked about the importance of representation and portraying complexity of character.
- Euronews quoted Acting Executive Director Maria Sjödin in an article about the US issuing the first passport with a third gender marker option.
- Acting Executive Director Maria Sjodin wrote an opinion piece for Openly by Thomson Reuters about the importance of recognizing a third gender in official documents.
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Intersex
This term refers to people who naturally have sex characteristics - biological traits, such as hormonal levels, chromosome patterns, gonads or genitalia - that do not match what is typically identified as male or female. There are many different intersex variations. Being intersex is a naturally occurring trait in humans. Intersex people can have different sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions. November 8 was Intersex Day of Remembrance, marking solidarity with the intersex community and raise awareness about the challenges LGBTIQ people face, including medically unnecessary and invasive so-called “normalizing surgeries”, lack of recognition in official documents, and many others.
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- OutSummit, OutRight’s annual global conference for the human rights of LGBTIQ people, will take place virtually on December 8-10. OutSummit is held to coincide with and in honor of Human Rights Day, marked annually on December 10, to serve as a reminder that the human rights of LGBTIQ people are human rights.
- Save the date for OutRight's annual Gala, Celebration of Courage, which will take place at the TriBeCa Rooftop in New York City on 6 June, 2022. Stay tuned for sponsorship opportunities and ticket sales, and event information in months to come!
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| FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA |
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Spread the word about OutSummit to your networks so that ever more people are able to join us in the fight for human rights for LGBTIQ people everywhere!
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