Issue

LGBTQIA Rights

A transgender woman in Thailand who dreams of becoming a lawyer. A Ugandan gay rights activist who leads a double life. A lesbian in Jamaica forced to flee her country.

Pulitzer Center journalists examine the many challenges the LGBTQIA community faces, probing legal, religious, and ethical issues in the fight for equal rights. They report on a wide range of topics, from hate crimes in Russia to new gender identity laws in Bolivia. And they ask important questions: In a world plagued by stigma and homophobia, how do gender, sexual identity, and love influence the human experience? Where do LGBTQIA people find the courage to confront fear and the threat of violence?

Our journalists use many forms of media to tell their stories. Among them are Micah Fink’s full-length documentary The Abominable Crime, the stunning photography of Misha Friedman’s work in Russia and of Daniella Zalcman’s work in Uganda, and Live Hope Love, the Emmy award-winning video poetry work of Kwame Dawes, Josh Cogan and Andre Lambertson.

 

 

 

LGBTQIA Rights

October 07, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

Dr. Figueroa on HIV AIDS in Jamaica

Micah Fink and Gabrielle Weiss, for the Pulitzer Center, Jamaica

For more than 25 years, Dr. Peter Figueroa fought an exhausting battle against HIV/AIDS epidemic in Jamaica. Now retired, he describes the challenges that have prevented him from reaching the goal.

October 02, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

Jamaica: Seven Facts

What does it mean when we report that a recent Jamaican government study found that nearly one-third of gay men in Jamaica are HIV positive?

October 02, 2009 | St. Louis Beacon

Take Five: Jon Sawyer, the Pulitzer Center's executive director, talks about new tools of journalism

By Kristen Hare, Beacon staff

Livehopelove.com feels like a plane ticket, a passport, something that helps you get from here to there. The website, a reporting project on HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting , features interviews, music, photos and poems.

Together, the story told is about living and dying with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.

"Most of my friends are dying -- the thing is, they know it, and the others are busy nursing the dying: God's cruel edits."

September 30, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

Jamaica: Reflections on homophobia

Micah Fink

Jamaica, to me, is a land of deep contradictions.

On one hand, it's a lovely, lush tropical country, blessed with sandy beaches, fantastic flowering shrubs, ripe mango and coconut trees, and inhabited by a strong, proud people who clearly share a basic sense of personal dignity and a deep-seated hospitality towards strangers. I found this to be true regardless of whom I was speaking with, be they rich or poor, educated or illiterate, straight or gay.