For many people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and sex characteristics, acts of resistance, support, and healing are a way of life. A dream held fast, a fist raised in solidarity, a listening ear these life-preserving acts, seen and unseen, big and small, are performed each day in the face of stigmatization, discrimination, and violence experienced by LGBTIQ+ people.
In every region of the world, LGBTIQ+ people are routinely denied their rights to freedom, safety, and equality. They may face pervasive discrimination, experience intolerable acts of violence that go unpunished, and lack access to justice. These experiences cannot be separated from struggles they may also face on account of other intersecting identities.
Amidst multiple crises, a Syrian in Beirut uses new skills to make a living As Lebanon sees a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases and deteriorating living conditions due to the ongoing political and economic crisis and the Beirut port explosions, Nisrine Kaf Al-Ghazal, a Syrian living in the capital, tries to make ends meet. Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Nisrine Kaf Al-Ghazal and Tasnim Mdalali, at the Social Development Center of Tariq El Jdide. Picture: UNW/Dar Al Mussawir.
Nisrine Kaf Al-Ghazal, a Syrian living in Beirut, saw her house badly damaged by the Beirut explosion on 4 August. “All the glass in the kitchen, bathroom, and living room shattered in front of our eyes,” she said.