Fearless con’t from p. 11 got HIV and they’re still poor. We believe stable housing is the answer to better health outcomes and prevention. We all know that when we don’t have to worry about a roof over our heads, we are better able to take our medication, we go to the doctor more, we eat better. National studies show people living with HIV who are stably housed, in regular medical care, can lower their viral load to the point that it is undetectable and they will not infect their sexual partner. Do you feel your life is at risk? Could be. I don’t think about it every day, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. Everybody knows where I live. Have you had any threats? Yes, I’ve had three people threaten my life. All anonymously, all by phone.
Photo: Serkan Ozturk
On your website, it says you’re “fearless.” [Pushes up her sleeve, shows a tattoo on her arm. In big letters is the word “Fearless.”] And my car tag says “Fearless.” That’s what my friends always say: That I have no fear.
EXPOSING THE WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES HRC LEADS THE WAY
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ext year, thousands of international anti-LGBT leaders will gather in Salt Lake City for the World Congress of Families conference. What’s at the top of their todo list? Strategizing about how to convince more countries to follow in the footsteps of Russia and enact harsh anti-LGBT laws. The World Congress of Families, or WCF, is a U.S.-based anti-LGBT organization with strong ties to extremist groups and high-level government officials around the world. Their planned October 2015 convening in Utah marks the first time that they will meet in the United States. This August, HRC released a comprehensive cutting-edge report on the activities of the WCF around the world. Exposed: The World Congress of Families details how WCF leaders have frequently praised the Russian government for its crackdown on LGBT people and freedom of expression, and how they travel often to Russia to meet with high-ranking officials and influential policymakers. Russian lawmakers with ties to the WCF include Yelena Mizulina, a member of the Duma, who authored the country’s anti-LGBT
“propaganda” legislation. After the bill became law, LGBT Russians have been subjected to horrific incidents of discrimination, harassment, public beatings and more. Exposed also documents WCF officials’ regular travel to, and forceful advocacy in, Africa — which has corresponded with a disturbing rise in harsh penalties for LGBT Africans. WCF officials have also been active for years in Australia and have helped stymie attempts to enact marriage equality there. Already, Australian activists have been able to use HRC’s report to call attention to a planned WCF gathering in Melbourne. Using Exposed, the Australians put pressure on government officials to drop their participation in the event and on event venues to cancel space for the group. The WCF received so much negative attention in Australia that they issued an “Open Letter” smearing LGBT and pro-choice activists as “sexual radicals.” “We’re committed to tracking and combatting this hate group wherever they go,” said HRC President Chad Griffin.
Australian LGBT advocates like New South Wales Assembly Member Alex Greenwich are using HRC’s report on the World Congress of Families to call attention to the dangerous anti-LGBT work the group has done in their country.
Why do you like the South? Because people smile at you. And they speak to you. And they’ll open the door for you. And they say, “Bless your heart.” And when there’s a natural disaster, we come together like nobody else. But it is the friendliness. It’s the front porch swing, and talking to your neighbor across the fence and saying, “Oh, I made this apple jelly!” Well, actually, I don’t make apple jelly. [Laughs.]
WWW.HRC.ORG
LATE SUMMER/EARLY FALL 2014
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