Feminist International Radio Endeavor Interviews Astraea and Aswat-Palestinian Gay Women At the AWID forum in Cape Town, South Africa, FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavor) interviewed Astraea Executive Director Katherine Acey and Samira, of Aswat—Palestinian Gay Women, an Astraea grantee partner. [more]  Letter from a Grantee: Esperanza for Free Speech  The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (San Antonio, TX) is one of Astraea’s Movement Building Initiative grantee partners. Amanda Haas sent us the following update on the important work of the San Antonio Free Speech Coalition, of which Esperanza is a leading member. [more] • Astraea Welcomes New Staff  • Leveraging Our Collective Power • Recent Press—Grantees in the News |
Lala Camps Launch a Movement In a country where formal organizations are a relatively new idea and public demonstrations are illegal, the Chinese lala (lesbian, bi, and trans) leadership trainings—the Lala Camps—are setting off a seismic shift. In 2007, the first Lala Camp moved lalas from isolation to connection. Then in October 2008 a series of five regional Lala Camps empowered 1,000 lalas from 35 cities with support, strategies, and vision. From Anshan, a rural area where organizers sell blood sausage to raise money for their activities, to metropolitan Beijing, home of the country’s only lesbian print magazine and largest lala group, the landscape of lala activism in China was fundamentally changed. [more] The Power of Movements in Cape Town  An Astraea grantee partner from Meem (Lebanon), stood at the podium at the opening plenary of the 11th AWID conference, The Power of Movements, held in Cape Town, South Africa. In a speech deftly weaving humor with gravity, she asserted to nearly 2,000 feminist activists from 144 countries that the feminist movement cannot call itself feminist without lesbians and transgender people. With over 160 sessions, she urged participants to engage with something they knew nothing about. The four days of plenary speeches, interactive sessions, workshops and debates that followed brought home the conference theme that “When people struggle together, what was once unimaginable suddenly becomes possible.” [more]Felicia Miller on Discovering Astraea  “The world is getting smaller,” says Felicia Miller, “If you don’t pay attention to what’s outside your world today, tomorrow it will be right in your own backyard.” Felicia gives because Astraea “assists LGBTI individuals worldwide. “Astraea is the lifeline for women and trans people literally fighting to exist.” [more]Faces of Astraea (l to r): Kaushalya Perera, Women’s Support Group, Sri Lanka; Brenda Funches, Astraea donor partner; Kris Hyashi, Audre Lorde Project, New York |
|
