FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ETAN Honors LGBTIQ+ Pride in
Timor-Leste
Contact:
ETAN, +1-917-690-4391,
etan@etan.org
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Participants in Timor-Leste's
2019 Gay Pride parade in Dili.
Graphic vis
IWDA. |
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The East Timor and Indonesia Action
Network (ETAN) salutes the ongoing
activities of activists, organizers and
everyone working to ensure Timor-Leste
as a nation that protects and embraces
all of its members, with particular
attention to the LGBTIQ+ community.
Timor-Leste’s people, especially those
who are not straight males, continue to
face discrimination. However, gender
tolerance and diversity have made great
strides during the last decade.
In promoting LGBTIQ+ visibility, and in
demanding full equality, groups such as
Hatutan,
Fundasaun Codiva,
and
Arcoiris advance important
principles and provide a remarkable
example to the region and to the world.
ETAN wishes to express our own
solidarity with the ongoing struggle for
a freer society that values all its
members.
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Timor-Leste stands out as an example
of tolerance and democracy, where
LGBTIQ+ leaders and allies work
tirelessly to raise the visibility
of the LGBTIQ+ community and
celebrate gender and sexual
diversity.
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Five years ago, Timor-Leste held its first LGBTIQ+ Pride
Parade. Two years ago, before Covid-19
hit, more than 3,000 people walked
through the streets of the Timorese
capital from the Foreign Ministry to the
Youth Ministry to celebrate diversity
and inclusion. Since that time,
activists have continued to work to
document and end discrimination and
abuses against the LGBTIQ+ community.
Although Timor-Leste is the newest
and most Catholic country in the region
and facing serious economic challenges,
it stands out as an example of tolerance
and democracy, where LGBTIQ+ leaders and
allies work tirelessly to raise the
visibility of the LGBTIQ+ community and
celebrate gender and sexual diversity.
For nearly 30 years ETAN has
been in solidarity with the Timorese
people.We fully support the call of
Timorese activists for the government to
go even further: to move from statements
of tolerance to actions against
discrimination and in support of
acceptance and genuine inclusion.
Much work remains to be done to
address the toxic legacies of
discrimination and ongoing homophobia in
United States society and around the
world.
We have been pleased that the U.S.
Ambassador to Timor-Leste has joined
past Pride Parades, despite the previous
U.S. administration’s frequent
violations of civil liberties and legal
protections. And we expect that support
for LGBTIQ+ communities to expand with a
new President in Washington.
We appreciate new
Ambassador
C. Kevin Blackstone's
participation in an
Uma Amerika webinar on Resilience
and Equality during Pride month, and we
encourage U.S. representatives in
Timor-Leste to continue and increase
their advovacy for human rights and
inclusion.
A luta
continua!
see
also:
ETAN's
Human Rights, Accountability and Justice
page
