On this very special episode, we mark Human Rights Day by speaking with Jessica Stern, the fierce & fabulous Executive Director of OutRight Action International. Founded in 1990 as the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), OutRight is one of the world's oldest & most important organizations working to advance LGBTI human rights. Collaborating with grassroots activists, researchers, elected officials, the United Nations, and many more partners across the globe, Jessica & OutRight are truly indispensable to the work of creating truly LGBTI-inclusive societies.
Episode 004: Limitless Visions (Mikael Owunna)
In this episode, Nigerian-Swedish-American photographer Mikael Owunna discusses his project, Limit(less), which documents the fashion and style of LGBTQ Africans in North America and Europe. Owunna explores queer African style in the diaspora in order to debunk the myth that being LGBTQ is somehow “un-African.”
Check out Limit(less) at http://limitlessafricans.com/ and Mikael's whole portfolio at http://mikaelowunna.com/.
Here's one of the photographs we discussed in our conversation:
"4 Queer African Women" (photo credit: Mikael Owunna)
Episode 002: A Rainbow Railroad (Kimahli Powell)
This week, we’re tackling 2017’s biggest story in queer human rights: the crisis in Chechnya. My guest is Kimahli Powell, the Executive Director of Rainbow Railroad. Based in Toronto, Rainbow Railroad has been working very closely with Russian activists to get gay Chechens to safety. We’ll be discussing this urgent work and the organization’s other work to offer a “rainbow railroad” to LGBTI people all over the world at immediate risk of danger.
Links mentioned in the episode:
Human Rights Watch, "They Have Long Arms and They Can Find Me": Anti-Gay Purge by Local Authorities in Russia's Chechen Republic (May 26, 2017
