Continental Europe Pride+ Live Speaker Series: The LGBT+ refugee crisis

Our latest event in the CE Pride+ Live Speaker series focused on the challenges faced by LGBT+ refugees.

Imagine leaving everything behind out of fear for your life because of who you are and whom you love. Having the most intimate details of your life questioned and exposed. Being locked up and at constant risk of assault from other asylum seekers. Starting over in a foreign country while still being targeted by your own immigrant community. This is the life of an LGBT+ refugee.

What does it mean to be human, gay, and an immigrant today? The Pride+ Network in CE invited everyone in the region to hear the stories of those who did, and those who did not escape death in their pursuit of freedom, safety and happiness. On 30 October 2019 our panel of human rights experts and activists met in Frankfurt for a discussion that was broadcast live to Hogan Lovells colleagues in Continental Europe, the UK, and the United States. 

• Alexey Kozlov, Co-Chair of the CE Pride+ network, assembled a panel consisting of a Syrian refugee, a Russian activist and a human rights NGO and moderated the discussion.
• Naman Tarcha CE Pride Plus.jpgNaman Tarcha, Syrian-born journalist and author of the book "Arab Media and Culture in the Mediterranean." Naman lives in Italy and is producer and host of the Babel TV channel on Sky Italy dedicated to immigration. He is the voice of Sinbad Rock Arab, a weekly radio show and a consultant to the SIMA App, designed to teach Arabic to Syrian refugee children.
• Tatiana Vinnichenko, director of the Moscow LGBT+ Community Center, activist, and receiver of numerous awards, including from the German government. Tatiana personally saved dozens of lives of LGBT+ Chechens, many of whom were tortured by officials and relatives in their home region of Chechnya.
• Goran Miletic, Director for Europe at Civil Rights Defenders (CRD) and a passionate supporter of human rights activism in the world's most repressive regions. Goran is in charge of managing the CRD Europe office and existing field offices in Europe.