Empowered lives.
Resilient nations.
Regional Dialogue
on LGBTI Human Rights
& Health in Asia-Pacific
Panelists
25-27 February 2015
OPENING REMARKS
Helen Clark
Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
Helen Clark is the Administrator of the United Nations Development
Programme and is the first woman to lead the organization. She is
also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee
consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments
working on development issues. Prior to her appointment with UNDP,
Helen Clark served for nine years as Prime Minister of New Zealand,
serving three successive terms from 1999 - 2008. Throughout her tenure
as Prime Minister, Helen Clark engaged widely in policy development and
advocacy across the international, economic, social and cultural spheres.
She came to the role of Prime Minister after an extensive parliamentary
and ministerial career. Prior to entering the New Zealand Parliament,
Helen Clark taught in the Political Studies Department of the University
of Auckland. She graduated with a BA in 1971 and an MA with First Class
Honours in 1974.
Luc Stevens
UN Resident Coordinator, Thailand
Luc Stevens is the United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP
Resident Representative in Thailand. He has over 25 years of experience
in humanitarian aid and international development. Beginning in 1987
as a Junior Professional Officer in Sudan, he started work for the UN
Refugee Agency where he was involved in humanitarian programmes
and emergency management. Prior to his current post, he served for
five years as the UN Resident Coordinator in Jordan, and as UNHCR’s
Regional Support Hub Manager for West Africa. He also served in the
Islamic Republic of Iran and Tanzania, and held various positions with
UNHCR in Geneva.
Oyungerel Tsedevdamba
Member of Parliament
Oyungerel Tsedevdamba is Member of Parliament in Mongolia and former
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism and President of the Democratic
Women’s Union of Mongolia. Oyungerel served as an advisor on human
rights and public participation to Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia
for the period of June 2009-March 2010. During her 14 years in public
service, Tsedevdamba has worked on the country’s privatization efforts
and social insurance reform, and served as advisor to the prime minister
and a member of parliament. As the co-founder and Executive Director
of the Liberty Center, a human rights watchdog, Tsedevdamba has
developed a reputation as a tireless advocate for democracy and gender
equality in Mongolia.
Honorable Louisa Wall
Member of Parliament
The Honorable Louisa Wall (Ngati Tuwharetoa me Waikato) has held
a variety of roles across the public sector as a policy advisor and
community advocate in the social policy and public policy areas. Louisa
believes that people have the solutions to meeting their own needs and
her responsibility is to ensure public resources are distributed in a way
that meets the needs and aspirations of all of our communities. A priority
for Louisa in her work with Manurewa community leaders is to help
create and cultivate the environment for the next generation to dream
and to fulfil their potential. As a former Silver Fern and Black Fern Louisa
knows that striving to attain goals can be achieved with the support
and encouragement of our families and communities. Louisa’s work is
founded on a commitment to universal human rights and to practically
ensuring that all people as NZ citizens live equally in dignity and rights.
Geena Rocero
Ms. Rocero is a model and trans advocate. She was born in the
Philippines but is now based in the US. She is the founder of Gender
Proud, an advocacy and awareness campaign advocating for gender
recognition policy that would allow transgender and gender variant
people to change name and gender marker on legal documents without
being force to go through surgeries, force sterilization and other dehumanizing barriers. In March 2014, Ms. Rocero shared her journey into
womanhood and came out as transgender at TED Conference, which
is now viewed 2 million times and translated in 28 languages. She
also spoke at the White House LGBT Summit and gave a speech with
President Obama.
Sophon Shimjinda
Sophon Shimjinda is a TV programme host at Thai Public Broadcasting
Service or Thai PBS. He has his own show at the station called
“LorLenLoke” or playing with the world. He loves travelling and taking
photos since he was a student at Rajamangala University of Technology
Krungthep or Bangkok Technology Colleague at that time. Being disabled
does not hinder him to continue travelling and producing stories.
Prof. Douglas Sanders
When Professor Sanders addressed the United Nations on behalf of ILGA
in 1992, he urged the United Nations to address issues of LGBT rights.
He is also a Professor emeritus in the Faculty of Law at the University of
British Columbia and academic an associate in the graduate programs in
human rights at Mahidol University, Bangkok.
SESSION 1: THE ROLE OF ADVOCACY IN ADVANCING RIGHTS AND INCLUSION
Clifton Cortez
HIV Manager, United Nations Development Programme
Clif Cortez joined UNDP headquarters in New York in 2014 where, as the
Deputy Director, he is responsible for leadership of all aspects of UNDP’s
policy work in the areas of HIV and health, including governance and
human rights. Prior to this, from 2010 he was posted to the UNDP AsiaPacific Regional Centre (APRC) in Bangkok as the regional HIV, Health
and Development Practice Leader, and was simultaneously the APRC
senior manager responsible for implementation of the UN multi-agency
anti-human trafficking initiative. Clif also served as the Regional Centre
Manager ad interim for a large part of 2013. Prior to joining UNDP, Clif
was with USAID (1997-2010), most recently as the USAID Regional Team
Leader for HIV based in their Regional Development Mission Asia, in
Bangkok, 2005-2010, and prior to that with USAID in Washington, 19972005.
Honorable Tarana Halim
Member of Parliament, Bangladesh
The Honorable Tarana Halim is a distinguished Member of Parliament for
the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Mr Halim has
successfully pursued enactments of the Domestic Violence Prevention
Act, among others, and is pursuing transgender issues to establish their
rights in the law. She is a leading advocate for the rights of women,
children, sex workers, and gender equality in Bangladesh and is also an
actor, director, documentary writer and novelist.
Chris Sidoti
Chris Sidoti is a human rights lawyer, advocate and teacher. He
currently works from Sydney, Australia, as an international human rights
consultant, specialising in the international human rights system and in
national human rights institutions. He was director of the International
Service for Human Rights, based in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2003 to
2007, and is now deputy chairperson of ISHR. He has been Australian
Human Rights Commissioner (1995-2000), Australian Law Reform
Commissioner (1992-1995) and Foundation Director of the Australian
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1987-1992). He has
also worked in non-government organisations, including for the Human
Rights Council of Australia and the Australian Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Western
Sydney, Griffith University (Queensland), University of the Sunshine Coast
(Queensland) and the Australian Catholic University.
Fanny Gomez
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
Fanny Gómez is the human rights specialist who coordinates the work
of the Rapporteurship on the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans,
and Intersex Persons (LGBTI), at the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights (IACHR), since its inception in February 2012. She works
at the IACHR since July 2007, where she started as a fellow for the
Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women. She then became a consultant
and was retained as an attorney at different sections of the IACHR. Fanny is
a Venezuelan attorney and a graduate of Andrés Bello Catholic University.
She earned a Master of Laws degree with a concentration in international
law at McGill University. On a scholarship from the University of Chile, she
pursued graduate studies in “Human Rights and Women: Theory and
Practice”. She completed the Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship
Program (WLPPFP) at the Georgetown University Law Center. Previously,
she was an external consultant for Human Rights Watch and worked
with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network to draft model legislation on
violence and discrimination against women in sub-Saharan Africa. She is
currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University.
Ashwin Raj
Media Industry Development Authority
Ashwin Raj is an academic based at the University of the South Pacific,
currently teaching Law at the University of Fiji and is the Chairman of
the Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA). He has previously
served on the Board of the Citizens Constitutional Forum as well as the
Drodrolagi Movement, an LGBTIQ movement in Fiji that was instrumental
in Fiji’s first International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
His areas of interest include deep democracy, constitutionalism and the
politics of human rights in transitional democracies.
Matilda Bogner
OHCHR
Matilda Bogner, regional representative for the UN Office for the High
Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in Southeast Asia. Before
arriving in Bangkok she served as the OHCHR regional representative
in the Pacific and Central Asia. Originally from Australia, she has worked
with several human rights NGOs include the Human Rights Watch.
SESSION 2: LGBTI MARGINALISATION: ADDRESSING HEALTH NEEDS AND REDUCING HIV
VULNERABILITIES
Steve Kraus
UNAIDS
Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific,
Steve Kraus supports countries across the region in achieving the goals
outlined in the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. Prior to joining
UNAIDS, Mr Kraus served as UNAIDS Global Coordinator and Chief of the
HIV/AIDS Branch of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in New
York where he strengthened linkages between sexual and reproductive
health and HIV.
The Hon. Michael Kirby
The Hon. Michael Kirby was appointed as Deputy President to the
Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in December 1974.
In 1975 he was seconded to be the inaugural Chairman of the Australian
Law Reform Commission. He served in that post until 1984.Between
1983 and 1984 he was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia followed
by his appointment to the Presidency of the New South Wales Court of
Appeal. He was elevated to the High Court of Australia in February 1996
and retired from that Court on 4 February 2009. Michael Kirby has
participated in many national and international bodies and commissions,
including the Global Commission HIV, the Law and as a member of the
UNAIDS Global reference panel on human rights and providing guidance
through the UNDP Being LGBT in Asia initiative.
Lv Fan
Director, Division of Policy Research and Social Sciences, National Center
for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention （NCAIDS）, China Center for
Disease Control and Prevention. 15 years experiences in HIV surveillance,
operational research in the areas of HIV epidemiology and strategy and
policy of HIV control and prevention. Dr. Lv Fan is the key person to
establish the comprehensive HIV surveillance system, HIV estimation
methodology in China. In the recent years, more than 20 reports related
to policy and strategy development had been presented to Ministry of
Health (National Health and Family Planning Committee) based on study
findings. Some key points from the reports were used in national policy,
such as China Action plan for HIV prevention (2012-2016). In coming
years, Dr Lv will involve in forming strategy of reducing HIV vulnerabilities
for key groups, such as MSM etc. and will be a key person to develop
China national HIV action plan for 2016-2020.
Prof. Frits van Griensven
Dr. Frits van Griensven is Director of the TANGERINE Gender and
Immunity Clinic and Senior Advisor for HIV Prevention with the Thai Red
Cross AIDS Research Center in Bangkok Thailand. He started his career
in HIV/AIDS in 1983 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In 1990 he moved
to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he completed a post-doctoral
fellowship at the School of Public Health of the University of California
at Berkeley. While continuing his scientific work as a visiting scholar
at the University of California at San Francisco and the San Francisco
Department of Public Health, he was recruited by the AIDS Programme
of the European Commission to assist with their activities in East Asia. In
1998 he took a position with the US CDC at their field station in Bangkok,
Thailand. Dr van Griensven is widely credited for his role in uncovering
the emerging HIV epidemic among MSM in East Asia, and is well known
for his innovative models of clinical service delivery for MSM and TGW. He
holds academic positions at UCSF, Hopkins and a few other universities
and has published more than 250 scientific papers on HIV/AIDS in the
literature.
Ging Cristobal
Ging Cristobal brings 12 years of LGBT activism in the Philippines and
Asia to her position as Project Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific
Islands at IGLHRC. She co-founded Lesbian Advocates Philippines
(LeAP), has lobbied for laws to protect LGBT rights, researched and
documented LGBT discrimination cases, and facilitated various local
and regional groups and networks on LGBT sexual health and rights. She
is currently an active member of Asia Pacific Rainbow, a regional LGBT
organization, and Ang Ladlad, a national organization for LGBT people in
the Philippines. She works to address the intersections of violence and
poverty in LBGT communities.
Hiker Chiu
Hiker Chiu is a regional intsex activist and the founder of Oii-Chinese
since 2008. Oii-Chinese is a platform for Chinese speaking intersex
people to get information, awareness, connection and peer support
and also an intersex human rights advocate organization. Hiker Chiu
came out as an intersex to raise intersex awareness publicly by initiating
the “Global Free Hugs with Intersex Movement” in the 8th Taipei Pride
Parade 2010. Being the only Asian delegate in the first and second
World Intersex Forums held by ILGA, Hiker also devotes to work on
building intersex connection in Asia. Hiker is now a PhD. candidate of the
Graduate school of Human Sexuality Shu-Te University in Taiwan.
SESSION 3: LGBTI INCLUSION, ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Jack Byrne
Jack Byrne is a trans human rights consultant based in Aotearoa, New
Zealand. He wrote Open Society Foundations’ 2014 report, License
to be Yourself, which highlights progressive gender recognition laws
and policies internationally and the advocacy strategies behind these
changes. From 2005 - 2014 he worked as a Senior Human Rights Policy
Analyst / Specialist at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission,
where he project managed its Transgender Inquiry.
Amritananda Chakravorty
Amritananda Chakravorty is a qualified lawyer based in New Delhi, India
and holds BA (Hons) Political Science (2003) and LLB from the University
of Delhi (2006) and LLM in International Development Law and Human
Rights from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom (2007). She is a
DFID Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Awardee for 2006-2007. She
has more than seven years experience of working in the field of human
rights, with special interest in legal and policy research. After joining
Lawyers Collective in 2009, she has been involved in many strategic
litigations including challenging mandatory death penalty for drug
offences, anti-sodomy offence, recognition of transgender rights, closure
of brothels, sexual harassment by judges, and travel restrictions imposed
on human rights activists. She has been actively involved in organising
advocacy initiatives like ‘Sex Workers meet Lawmakers’, expert
consultation on the ‘NDPS Amendment Bill, 2011’, national consultation
on Section 377, amongst others. She has made oral presentations at
International AIDS Conference, Vienna in 2010, ICAAP, Busan in 2011
and International Harm Reduction Conference in Lithuania (2013).
Laxmi Narayan Tripati
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi (known as Laxmi, sometimes transliterated as
Lakshmi) is a hijra/transgender rights activist, Hindi film actress and
Bharatanatyam dancer in Mumbai, India. She was born in 1979 in Thane.
Laxmi is a hijra. She is the first hijra person to represent Asia-Pacific
in the UN in 2008. At the assembly, she spoke of the plight of sexual
minorities. “People should be more humane. They should respect us as
human beings and consider our rights as transgenders,” she said.
Sam Winter
Sam works in sexology at the School of Public Health at the Faculty of
Health Science at Curtin University in Perth. His interests include sexual
and gender development and diversity, rights, health and education. A
psychologist by training and professional experience, Sam has taught,
researched and published extensively in trans health and rights. He has
also worked extensively with trans clients. He has worked with WHO
(being one of those responsible for proposals for ICD-11 diagnostic
reform), and with UNDP (authoring their 2012 Lost in Transition report).
Since 2009 he has been a board member of the World Professional
Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), and was one of the authors
of their most recent Standards of Care (SOC-7). He has done advocacy
work regionally and worldwide, working with Asia-Pacific Transgender
Network (APTN) and Global Action for Trans* Equality (GATE).
Selina Lo
Selina Lo is a Senior Editor for the Lancet, the world’s leading general
medical journal. Selina started her career as a GP in Melbourne,
specialising in the treatment of HIV. She began going on MSF missions
as a way to feed her passion for global health, which led to her serving
as the Medical Director for the MSF Access Campaign for several
years. At the Lancet, Selina is responsible for coordinating the journal’s
groundbreaking global health commission series.
SESSION 4: PERSONHOOD AND LEGAL GENDER RECOGNITION
James Chau
James Chau is currently a Special Contributor to China Central Television
(CCTV), writer, and UN Goodwill Ambassador and former Guest Presenter
on BBC World on the weekend show Horizons. He has interviewed a
range of world figures from Winnie Mandela, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, and
Arianna Huffington, to Robert Mugabe, Muhammad Yunus, and Elton
John. Most recently, he was the first journalist to secure an exclusive with
Indonesia’s new president Joko Widodo, and is also one of the few to
have spoken on camera with Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan. He was the
first person in China to become UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, when the
United Nations appointed him to this role in 2009. He travels worldwide
to support the fight against HIV and AIDS. His focus on youth, women,
and injecting drug users has led to collaborations with Annie Lennox,
Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
whose co-discovery of HIV won her the 2008 Nobel Prize. He speaks and
moderates at international events including the UN General Assembly,
and World Economic Forum. He lives in Beijing where he is writing his first
book, a collection of conversations with global leaders.
Saksit Pitipongsoonthorn
Mr. Saksit Pitipongsoonthorn is the Senior Vice President of Brand and
Marketing for Standard Chartered Bank in Thailand. He has over 15 years
work experience in the financial industry. At Standard Chartered Thailand,
Saksit plays a vital role in driving their Diversity & Inclusion program,
which has shaped the Bank’s culture to believe and recognize gender
diversity and helps lead the way for an inclusive workplace that leverages
its diversity. Saksit was one of the key members in developing “We+”,
a suite of financial products which were developed mainly for the LGBT
community.
Phil Crehan
Phil Crehan examines the economic and social impact of homophobic/
transphobic discrimination. At the World Bank, he works on various
projects that promote the full inclusion and human rights of LGBTI
persons. He managed a grant “Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and
Development” that examined the relationship between discrimination
and socioeconomic outcomes, in addition to highlighting the link between
social exclusion and economic development. He has project experience
in South Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. Phil is passionate about
promoting a world free of discrimination while working in cooperation
with LGBTI groups.
Tze-wei Ng
Tze-wei is responsible for managing PILnet’s programs in Hong Kong, as
well as supporting programs in mainland China. She recently graduated
from Columbia University with a LLM specializing in law and development,
and international human rights. A native of Hong Kong, she practiced law
briefly as a litigation solicitor, after obtaining her undergraduate degree
in law and anthropology from the London School of Economics. She has
always been curious about how legal systems develop in the unique
context of their culture and history. In 2005, she decided to become
a journalist covering a fast-developing China. As one of the Beijing
correspondents for the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post,
she focused much of her reporting on the legal developments and rule of
law issues in China. During her LLM she researched topics ranging from
public interest litigation in China, to corporate governance and corporate
responsibility, to transitional justice. She was awarded two fellowships
by Columbia Law School: she spent five months with the International
Center for Transitional Justice as a Mark Haas Public Interest Law Fellow;
and she is also recipient of the Greater China Public Interest Fellowship
Andrew Park
Mr. Park is a Director of International Programs Williams Institute,
UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles. The Williams Institute is dedicated
to conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation
and gender identity law and public policy. The Institute produces
high-quality research with real-world relevance and disseminates it to
judges, legislators, policymakers, media and the public. He is also a
Program Director of Wellspring Advisors, LLC, New York, and Coordinator
International Human Rights Funders Group, Senior Philanthropic Advisor.
Emma Hoo
Emma works as Head of Human Resources, Asia for the music record
company EMI and previously worked in the Danish leading wind turbine
company Vestas as People and Culture Director. She used to lead a
diversity and inclusion team to promote LGBT equality right in China’s
business world. Benefiting from her professional background in private
sectors, Emma works comprehensively with companies such as IBM
China and Goldman Sachs China in LGBTQA employment and equality.
She became an activist in various NGO/NPOs in Asia and China since 3
year ago. Emma works as Board member of APTN and Board member
of PCI (Pink China Initiative) and works in-depth with a number of Trans
Communities allies in China, such as Aibai Cultural and Educational
Center and Beijing LGBT Center. Emma is on her way to co-founding an
NGO in china focusing on 360 degree practical services for Chinese
Transgender people all over the world since late 2014.
SESSION 5: TACKLING LGBTI EXCLUSION IN EDUCATION
Justine Sass
Justine Sass is Regional HIV and AIDS Adviser for Asia and the Pacific
and Chief, HIV Prevention and Health Promotion Unit at UNESCO
Bangkok. A gender and public health specialist, she has worked for 20
years in multiple continents, with different organizations, and on various
development issues linked to the protection and realization of rights.
Nanda Lal Paudel
Under-Secretary at Ministry of Education
Mr. Nanda Lal Paudel serves as Under-Secretary at Ministry of Education,
Kathmandu. Mr. Paudel is specialized in Curriculum and Evaluation and
has 6 years working experience in education administration as District
Education Officer. Prior to that, Mr. Paudel served as school supervisor for
more than 13 years. Besides he also served as a teacher for 6 years at
University level and 2 years at secondary level. Mr. Paudel has received
special training on conflict management from Danish Institute of Human
Rights. Permanent resident of Baglung, Nepal, Mr. Paudel is a graduate
of Master of Education.
Dr. Joe Kosciw
Dr. Joseph G. Kosciw is Research Director at GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and
Straight Education Network), where he oversees the organization’s
research on LGBT issues in education and evaluation research on
GLSEN’s programs. Dr. Kosciw has a Ph.D in psychology from New York
University and a B.A in Psychology and M.S.Ed. in Counseling from the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kosciw has been conducting communitybased research for over 15 years, including program evaluations for nonprofit social service organizations and for local government.
Thomas E. Guadamuz
Thomas E. Guadamuz, PhD, assistant professor of behavioral and
community health science. He has worked in HIV research and prevention
for over a decade specializing in issues relevant for LGBT people.
Organisations he has worked include the WHO, Thailand Ministry of
Public Health, HIV Research Ethics Training Institute (NY). Currently he
is working with the use of mobile technology as a tool in HIV prevention
in young people in Asia. He was on the Mahidol University team for the
first-ever study on homophobic bullying in Thailand, commissioned by
UNESCO and Plan International and is a technical adviser to UNESCO for
a similar piece of research in Viet Nam.
Xu Bin
Bin Xu has been a dedicated LGBTI rights activist in China since 1990s
and was co-founder of many LGBT organizations. She is currently
the director of Common Language, a board member of Beijing LGBT
Center and is on the advisory board of Chinese Lala Alliance as well as
some international organizations. Bin Xu’s work focuses on grassroots
community organizing, cross region networking, LGBTI rights advocacy
and civil society development for gender and sexuality equality and social
justice in China. Xu Bin was on the Technical Advisor Panel for Being
LGBT in Asia Phase 1.
SESSION 6: NAVIGATING FAMILIAL TERRITORY
Jeffrey O’Malley
UNICEF
Jeffrey O’Malley is the Global Director, Division of Data, Research, and
Policy, UNICEF in New York. Mr O’Malley has 25 years of experience
in public health and development, including almost 20 years of
international leadership on HIV and AIDS. Until 2013, he was Director
of the HIV/AIDS Group in the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) Bureau for Development Policy. Prior to joining UNDP, Mr.
O’Malley worked as Country Director for India with PATH. Between
1993 and 2004, he established and led the International HIV/AIDS
Alliance, which became the world’s largest international development
nongovernmental organization specializing in HIV and AIDS. Mr. O’Malley
has also worked for the Harvard School of Public Health and for the World
Health Organization. He is originally from Canada and holds a Master’s
Degree in International Affairs (Development) from Carleton University in
Ottawa.
Budi Wahyuni
Coordinator of Ad-Interim of Chairperson of Indonesia National
Commission on Violence against Women
Budi Wahyuni is Coordinator of Ad-Interim of Chairperson of National
Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) period
2015-2019. Komnas Perempuan is a specific National Human Rights
Institution (NHRI) focuses on elimination of all forms of violence
against women in Indonesia. Komnas Perempuan was established in
response to the demands of civil society, particularly women’s groups,
for Government of Indonesia to take responsibility for violence against
women, particularly sexual violence that was directed specifically at
the Chinese in the May 1998 riots. She finished her Master Degree
on Management at Gajah Mada University, Medical Anthropology at
University of Amsterdam and her Doctoral Degree on Public Health at
Gajah Mada University. She has become a Medical Faculty guest lecturer
at Gajah Mada University (2000-now) and a counsellor of reproductive
health and violence against women at Indonesian Planned Parenthood
Association Yogyakarta Chapter and Indonesian Women’s Association for
Justice and Legal Institute Yogyakarta Chapter (2002-now)
Lily Dinh
Lily Dinh (mother) worked at a Vietnam Academy of Science and
Technology, a governmental research institute before retiring. I have a
son who is 26 years old. After coming to terms with her son’s sexual
orientation she started her PFLAG activities since 2011.
Teddy Nguyen
Teddy Nguyen (son) is currently working at the Ho Chi Minh City University
of Foreign Languages and Information Technology. He came out when he
was 18 and currently has have a boyfriend.
Ben Xue
Benjamin Xue, is the Pink Dot SG, Community Liaison & Social Media.
He co-founded the first youth group in Singapore, Young OUT Here (YOH)
back in 2007. YOH have grown and helped over 120 LGBT youths by
being a safe place to be who they are. He’s since moved on and now is
part of the Pink Dot SG organising committee. ‘Hope will never be silent’
- Harvey Milk.
Laurindo Garcia
Laurindo Garcia is the Founder and Chief Executive of an international
social enterprise group called B-Change that seeks to promote social
change through technology. The B-Change Group is set to launch a
portfolio of multilingual web-apps designed to crowd-source peer support
in early 2014: firstly an app for gay men and other men who have sex with
men living with HIV (PLUS), and the other for young people from sexual
and gender minorities (BE). Laurindo Garcia is a global ambassador of
the ‘Here I Am’ Campaign - an international campaign calling on world
leaders to save millions of lives by supporting a fully funded Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR LGBTI RIGHTS?
Nadia Rasheed
Nadia Rasheed is the Practice Manager of the HIV, Health and
Development Practice at the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP). She has worked on a range of HIV and health issues,
including links between HIV and gender inequality, and United Nations
partnerships. She previously worked with the UNDP Human Development
Report Office and the Research Action and Information Network for the
Bodily Integrity of Women. She is a graduate of the Columbia School of
International and Public Affairs and the London School of Economics.
Edmund Settle
Edmund Settle is UN Sector Advisor With a background in International
Policy and modern Chinese history. Edmund is from the United States
and is currently a Policy Advisor for HIV at UNDP Bangkok. He was based
in China and has previously worked for China’s National Center for STD/
AIDS Control and Prevention (NCAIDS). Edmund later established and
managed the China HIV/AIDS Information Network (CHAIN), an NGO
specializing in AIDS information management.
For more information visit:
http://www.being-me.net/beinglgbti/