Join ECADE & CEP for our Queer Caribbeans panel at NYC Pride’s human rights conference in celebration of #WorldPrideNYC & #Stonewall50!

NYC Pride’s Human Rights Conference – WorldPride 2019 | Stonewall 50

Date: June 25, 2019 | 3:00 - 4:30 PM

Location: New York Law School (185 W Broadway, New York, NY 10013)

Panel Title: Queer Caribbeans: Building LGBTQ+ Activism through an Intersectional Lens from Homeland to Diaspora(s) (Racism, Discrimination, PRIDE & Migration)

Co-hosting Organisations: Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE) and Caribbean Equality Project (CEP)

Moderator: Lady Phyll Opoku- Gyimah

Panelists: Kenita Placide, Mohamed Q. Amin, Marcus Kissoon, Ryan Persadie, and Twinkle Paul

Keywords: Queer Caribbeans; CaribbeanLGBTQ; Trans Caribbean Activism, Queer Caribbean Diaspora; Queer People of Color; Queer Caribbean Activism; LGBTQI Identity; Solidarity; Community Building; Racism; Discrimination; Pride; Migration

Aim: This panel will offer a discussion of the critical LGBTQ+ political alliances and solidarity work being performed within, between and across the Caribbean region and its diasporas.

Overview: Despite recent great strides in the Caribbean region to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and its diasporas, queer/trans-Caribbeans of color continue to be regulated, policed and surveilled, largely cast as “invisible” and “inauthentic” citizens in the region. Such heteronormative logics situate how queer Caribbeans of color live and struggle to negotiate their Caribbean identities because they are often unable to be seen and represented as “proper” Caribbean subjects as a result of their sexual and/ or gender difference.

This panel will offer a discussion of the critical LGBTQ+ political alliances and solidarity work being performed within, between and across the Caribbean region and its diasporas in the US and Canada. In particular, we center the organizing efforts of the Caribbean Equality Project, a non-profit organization established in 2015 by three queer Caribbean men in NYC, including its current executive director Mohamed Q. Amin, who wanted to respond to increasing anti-queer hate crimes in the city. Now, in its fourth year of operation, CEP provides support to multiple queer Caribbean communities in the New York area including, support groups, safe spaces and services housing, judicial and emotional support to those living in vulnerable and violent circumstances in the Caribbean region and seeking asylum in the US. Drawing upon recent projects, CEP has organized in Canada; this panel will explore the ways in which the Caribbean region and diaspora can engage in important coalition-building efforts to bring about much-needed social change for global LGBTQ+ Caribbean communities. In conversation with queer community leaders in the Caribbean such as Kenita Placide from Saint Lucia, and Marcus Kissoon from Trinidad and Tobago, as well as with those working in diaspora such as Mohamed Q. Amin and Twinkle Paul from Guyana in New York City, and Ryan Persadie from Canada will draw upon their personal experiences with performing this work. Lady Phyll Opoku- Gyimah, Co-founder UK Black PRIDE will moderate this panel from an intersectional lens to unpack trajectories of queer Caribbean social justice work that draws upon alliances between homeland(s) and diaspora(s), focusing on gender & sexuality, class, racism, discrimination, PRIDE & migration.

To learn more, email Kenita at info@ECEquality.org, Mohamed at info@CaribbeanEqualityProject.org or visit www.ECEquality.org and www.CaribbeanEqualityProject.org.

To learn more about the Caribbean Equality Project & for regular updates on our work connect with us on YouTube, Twitter @CaribEquality and Facebook and Instagram at @CaribbeanEqualityProject.