Vulnerability Amplified: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on LGBTIQ People – Virtual Program

This is a virtual program, instructions on how to join this meeting will be sent the day before the event.

Outright Action International recently released the report: “Vulnerability Amplified: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on LGBTIQ People”, documenting the effects of the pandemic on LGBTIQ people. The report draws on 60 rapid research interviews conducted with LGBTIQ people in all regions of the world and shows that the challenges faced by LGBTIQ people as a result of the virus and surrounding containment measures are specified and amplified compared to the broader population. Join the World Affairs Council, together with WorldOregon, the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, and the World Affairs Councils of America for a discussion on the issues faced by LGBTIQ people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the Speakers
Neish McLean is the Caribbean Program Officer at OutRight Action International, based in Jamaica. Neish joined OutRight after serving as OutRight's Religion Fellow in 2018. Neish is a Co-founder of TransWave Jamaica, Jamaica’s first and only organization solely dedicated to advocacy for trans people. Neish is also the Vice-Chair of the United Caribbean Trans Network (UCTRANS). Neish has extensive experience of delivering human rights workshops and trainings throughout the Caribbean and beyond. Neish holds a BSc in Psychology which helps in their work as a human rights defender while using their lived reality as a trans person to inform their advocacy. Neish also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Sports Management. Neish is a sports and fitness enthusiast.

Luiza Drummond Veado is OutRight's United Nations Program Officer, based in New York. She is a Brazilian attorney with an International Human Rights Law LLM from the University of Essex. She worked at the Rapporteurship on Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Persons of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for almost two years, where she developed thematic reports and worked on regional leading cases on LGBTI rights. Prior to this, she was a member of the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Essex and has worked at the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, the Center for Justice and International Law and the Minas Gerais State Human Rights Council and its Truth Commission. Luiza has also published several academic articles on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics; trained more than one hundred activists and government officials on international and regional non-discrimination standards, with a focus on LGBTI rights; and has coordinated an award-winning video campaign on violence against LGBTI persons in the Americas.

Jessica Stern, Executive Director of OutRight Action International, specializes in gender, sexuality and human rights globally. At OutRight, she has doubled the budget, supported the legal registration of LGBTIQ organizations globally, helped secure the mandate of the United Nations Independent Expert on Discrimination and Violence based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and advanced the UN LGBTI Core Group. She is frequently quoted by the media in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Time. She has provided expert opinions to governments globally and UN mechanisms, including UNWomen where she serves as a member of the LGBTI Reference Group and Women Human Rights Defenders Reference Group. Her writing has been cited by the Indian Supreme Court in its seminal judgement decriminalizing homosexuality (Navtej Singh Johar versus the Union of India) and featured in a new chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace and Security (2019). She is an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University.