Jessica Stern: "Post-Sochi: Where LGBT Rights are Getting the Gold and Getting Prison Terms"

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The Atlantic Magazine recently did a story, How Sochi Became the Gay Olympics. Yet, Russian law describes LGBT people as pedophiles. President Museveni of Uganda signed into law a far-reaching bill that sentences "repeat offenders" to life imprisonment and makes it illegal to not report suspected homosexuals to the police. And in the southwestern United States, the Arizona legislature passed a bill that allows businesses to refuse service to anyone perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Is the movement for LGBT human rights advancing or regressing? What produces progress and set-backs? And how do we act in global solidarity?

Join Jessica Stern, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), for a conversation about one of today's most controversial global debates.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), founded in 1990, is a leading international human rights organization dedicated to improving the lives of people who experience discrimination or abuse on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. We are dedicated to strengthening the capacity of the LGBT human rights movement worldwide to effectively conduct documentation of LGBT human rights violations and by engaging in human rights advocacy with partners around the globe. We work with the United Nations, regional human rights monitoring bodies and civil society partners. IGLHRC holds consultative status at the United Nations as a recognized Non-Governmental Organization representing the concerns and human rights of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people worldwide.

About the Speaker: Jessica Stern is the Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. As the first researcher on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights at Human Rights Watch, she conducted fact-finding investigations and advocacy around sexual orientation and gender identity in countries including Iran, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. As a Ralph Bunche Fellow at Amnesty International, she documented police brutality for what became its landmark report on police brutality in LGBT communities in the U.S., "Stonewalled." She was a founding collective member and co-coordinator of Bluestockings, then New York's only women's bookstore. She has campaigned extensively for women's rights, LGBT rights, and economic justice with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Control Ciudadano, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and the Urban Justice Center. She holds a masters degree in human rights from the London School of Economics. She is frequently quoted in the Mail & Guardian, Al Jazeera English, the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Presse, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, The Guardian and The BBC.