Conference Backs Gay Rights

Last night marked the inaugural event of the second annual Gay Rights as Human Rights Conference with a film screening and discussion titled “Queering Development Practice.” Hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School as part of this week’s University-wide recognition of the month of Gaypril, the event addressed LGBT advocacy in developing countries.

“There’s often a domestic focus around LGBT policy issues because on the international level people think it’s too difficult to tackle,” said Sarah B. Bouchat, who organized the conference and is involved in the Kennedy School’s LGBT Caucus. “We want to address not only what the lives of LGBT people in developing countries are like, but how everyone in the broader community is implicated in advocating for rights.”

Bouchat said that this conference marks the beginning of what she thinks should be a longer discussion of LGBT issues in developing countries, and hopes that Kennedy School students can learn how to be helpful in cultures that are not their own.

Richmond P. Blake, a member of the LGBT Caucus who helped organize the conference, said that this event is especially important for the Kennedy School because of its focus on foreign affairs and international politics.

“As far behind as the U.S. is on gay rights, it’s still leaps and bounds beyond a lot of other countries,” he said, noting that in order to play a role in the international fight for rights, it is important to explore how to help developing countries become more accepting of gay people without imposing Western values or creating backlash in those communities.

Tommy Tseng, a master’s candidate in public policy at the Kennedy School, agreed that as students in policy, it is important to have an awareness of developing countries before starting to work with them.

“When working in cultures with restrictive or discriminatory laws we have to know how to adjust our programs to take into account different societies’ laws,” he said, adding that the conference as a whole would address issues of policy on a range of levels.

“The goal of the conference is to educate the student body and members of the community on LGBT issues, and we hope to use this conference as an opportunity to start a dialogue with allies of LGBT students,” he said.

—Staff writer Alice E.M. Underwood can be reached at aeunderw@fas.harvard.edu.