LGBTIQ*

The internet can open up spaces for marginalised groups to strengthen their identities, exchange ideas, form communities, and organise themselves. In Nigeria, however, freedom of communication and information is increasingly being restricted. We spoke with queer security expert Azeenarh Mohammed about LGBTIQ rights, risk profiles, and the Twitter blackout.

This two-day digital conference, organized by the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Department of Diversity and Social Conflict in cooperation with Brown University and the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, aims to bring together researchers, activists, and community organizers to discuss how discourses on gender and sexuality have evolved in the Middle East and Europe amid the rise of far-right and authoritarian movements.

More than 50 people were injured in attacks on journalists and civil society in Tbilisi in early July in connection with Pride Week. The German Federal Government and the EU should strongly urge their Georgian partners to address the violence through prompt and comprehensive legal and political action. 

For many LGBTI+ people, staying home raises domestic violence concerns. Already among the most vulnerable groups regarding access to employment, LGBTI+ individuals are now facing job and income losses. Moreover, the risk of discrimination in healthcare is higher for LGBTI+ individuals. To make matters worse, hate speech targeting the LGBTI+ community in the pretext of Covid-19 is on the rise.

There was an atmosphere of fear, yet at the same time the need to confront and fight for basic human rights became urgent. There was also a need to document everything that happened and that is what this story is all about.

Who is missing from the historical record? How can private collections of documents contribute to the formation and growth of queer archives and what can these items tell us about the societies they originate from? This is a professional and personal journey through private documents and how they portray societal relations towards trans children in Thailand.

In times when discriminatory and derogatory language is still a daily routine in many countries, exhibitions showcasing same-sex desire or other non-normative life paths are crucial to re-write our own history. A museum in Colombia without formal museum space offers its own contribution.

The Closet is a space that is both safe, a site of trauma as well as a construct which ‘needs’ to be broken out of. Placing the Closet in a gallery is an attempt to create a pocket of space that allows outsiders entry into its cruel existence.