Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights: Strategic Alliances to Advance Knowledge and Social Change

Abstract

<jats:p>The Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights research project involves working collaboratively with community partners, both local and international. This article presents the research currently being conducted and some of the challenges in undertaking knowledge engagement between academia and the community with the project’s Canadian, African, and Caribbean partners by means of participatory action research (PAR). Specifically, the article gives examples of the project’s work and explores the following topics: work with Global South partners and marginalized communities; strategic alliances; knowledge production and mobilization; and methodologies that have contributed to successes or challenges. Knowledge engagement at the international level, with its variances in resources, power, and autonomy, increases the demands of such work and the need for sensitivity in reaching the goals of the project and those of all of its stakeholders.Résumé: Le projet Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights implique le travaille en collaboration avec des partenaires communautaires, à la fois locaux et internationaux. Cet article présente les recherches actuellement menées et des défis à entreprendre l’engagement de connaissances entre le milieu universitaire et nos partenaires communautaires canadiens, africains et des Caraïbes. Le document donne des exemples de notre travail et explore les thèmes suivants : travailler avec les partenaires du Sud planétaire et les communautés marginalisées; les alliances stratégiques; la production de connaissances et son mobilisation; les défis de la recherche participative; ainsi que des méthodologies qui ont contribué à nos succès ou défis. L’engagement de connaissances au niveau international avec des écarts en matière de ressources, de pouvoir et d’autonomie contribue aux défis d’un tel travail et le besoin de sensibilité pour atteindre les objectifs du projet et l’ensemble de ses parties prenantes.</jats:p>

“If You Can Just Break the Stigma Around It”: LGBTQI+ Migrants’ Experiences of Stigma and Mental Health

“…Furthermore, LGBTQI+ migrants experience social, cultural stigma and discriminations pre and post migration. Pre-migration LGBTQI+ people experience high levels of violence and trauma due to their SOGIE (Alessi et al, 2018; Lee, 2021; Nicol et al, 2017). These experiences may include physical, mental, emotional and sexual violence (Alessi et al, 2020; Veale et al, 2015).…”

Responses to Structural Violence: The Everyday Ways in Which Queer and Trans Migrants With Precarious Status Respond to and Resist the Canadian Immigration Regime

“…Most of the Canadian and U.S. empirical literature about queer and trans migrants with precarious status focuses on LGBTQI refugees (LaViolette, 2007(LaViolette, , 2009Lee et al, 2017;Murray, 2016;Nicol et al, 2014;Rehaag, 2008Rehaag, , 2009Ricard, 2011Ricard, , 2014. There is also scholarship that focuses on same-gender spousal sponsorship (Farber, 2010;LaViolette, 2004;Miluso, 2004;Zaske, 2006), international students (Kato, 1998;Oba & Pope, 2013), undocumented status (Cruz, 2008;Manalansan, 2014), and detention (Solomon, 2005).…”

“…A closer examination of the lives of LGBTQI people in the Global South suggests more complicated realities (Awondo, Geschiere, & Reid, 2012;Dutta & Roy, 2012;Ekine, 2013;Lee et al, 2017). Over the past decade, Canada has asserted itself as a global leader in LGBTQI human rights, as well as a "safe haven" for LGBTQI people who are fleeing homophobia or transphobia (Jenicek et al, 2009;Nicol, Gasse-Gates, & Mulé, 2014). However, this simplistic framing obscures how the movement of LGBTQI people from the Global South to Canada is shaped by the complexities of global capitalism, post-colonial nationalism, and national migration laws (El-Hage & Lee, 2016).…”

Critical oral history: Reflections on method and medium

“…Accordingly, an important aspect of knowledge mobilization from the project was the production of text, audio, and video that would be retained by the collaborating agencies, disseminated to the world, and safeguarded in Toronto-based archives. The principal investigator provides details of the project's inception, governance and outcomes in Nicol et al (2014). Although data collection has ended, the project continues knowledge mobilization.…”

“…Our section of the project worked with The United Belize Advocacy Movement (UniBam) in Belize, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) in Guyana, The Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) in Jamaica, and United & Strong (U&S) in St. Lucia. As described in Nicol et al (2014), the project was committed to "providing funding and support to develop the research capacity of grassroots LGBT Global South partners (p. 7)". In early stages of the project, we focused on building capacity by training NGO staff to conduct data collection interviews and record participatory videos.…”