Creating Spaces. Common Issues, Lessons Learnt and Ways

Creating Space Common issues, lessons learnt and ways forward for people involved in the development of LGBTI organisations Creating Space Common issues, lessons learnt and ways forward for people involved in the development of LGBTI organisations English editing: Tom Johnston Spanish translation: Darinka Mangino and Anabel Gómez Portuguese translation: Claudio Tavares Layout: Luiz DeBarros Cartoons: Auke Herrema To be cited as: Creating Space: Common issues, lessons learnt and ways forward for people involved in the development of LGBTI organisations. Langen, B (ed.), W. Banks, J. Bruinsma, J. Cruz Diez Beltrán, G. Dütting, K. Kraan, W. Muguongo and H.M. Kinyili. Amsterdam/Pretoria 2012. This publication is published under Creative Commons 3.0. 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Contents Introduction 2 Acknowledgements 8 About the writers 12 Creating an overview of current issues: Results of the web survey (Bram Langen) 16 Making a difference: Developing and resourcing our organisational strategies (Warren Banks) 28 LGBTI leadership (Karen Kraan) 46 LGBTI identity and group mechanisms (Jan Bruinsma) 56 Dynamics of LGBTI organising (Wanja Muguongo and Happy Mwende Kinyili) 64 Alliances and their dynamics: LGBTI organisations working together for tangible changes (Gisela Dütting) 74 LGBTI people and organisations in a hostile environment (Juan Cruz Diez Beltrán) 88 Appendix: Cartoons 102 1 Introduction 2 All over the world, a variety of LGBTI1 groups, movements and organisations2 are working to improve the lives of sexual minorities. Currently there are greater opportunities than ever before for LGBTI organisations to make a difference in the world: through empowerment, through advocacy for human rights, by implementing HIV prevention, treatment and care interventions, by integrating LGBTI needs into mainstream healthcare systems, etc. All of this, however, requires proactive, resilient and sustainable LGBTI organising entities. The injustice, the stigma and the needs out there are so enormous that organisations tend to focus on the development and implementation of programmes and interventions. It can be hard to find the time and energy to stop and reflect. And if the staff of LGBTI organisations do manage to stop and reflect on their practice and try to determine their successes and lessons learnt, they will look at their programmes and activities in the field, but rarely focus on organising processes. Aim of this publication Over the years, the many people involved in this sector have gathered an enormous wealth of implicit knowledge on how these organisations work, how they relate to each other and how they develop themselves. This publication captures some of their practices and will make their organisational lessons learnt more explicit. Making these lessons more accessible will support practitioners who are involved in one way or another in the development of LGBTI organisations, whether they be activists, funders, capacity enhancers, networkers, programmers, lobbyists or whichever other role or combinations of roles. After reading (parts of) this publication, the reader will hopefully feel inspired, enlightened, challenged, disturbed or motivated. Any of these feelings, in combination with the lessons learnt and the tips and tricks in this publication, will hopefully trigger further positive change in the LGBTI entity, organisation or movement in or with which they are involved. LGBTI organisations and groups are no different from other organising entities. The mechanisms that are at play within and between LGBTI organisations are the same as elsewhere. LGBTI organisations emerge, develop and die like any other organisations. They create successes, they fight, they suffer, they laugh, they link up, they share and they learn like any other organisations. This publication will focus on the positive aspects, on strengths and opportunities. It celebrates the successes, the drive and the energy of people who are involved in the LGBTI movement. That doesn’t mean it avoids looking at those things that aren’t working so well or at the threats many of those people face in organising themselves. This publication looks at those challenges too, but from a constructive and appreciative perspective. We realise that the contexts and the ways in which LGBTI organise themselves differ significantly between different regions and countries. The people involved make different choices, both conscious and less conscious, in terms of 1. For the sake of readability, this publication uses the term LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex people) consistently. That in no way means that we want to ignore other orientations or identities people prefer to use for themselves, including trans, transvestite, transsexual, queer or any other. 2. In this publication, these include organisations or organising entities that do not self-identify as LGBTI organisations, but that do work directly for the needs of (parts of) the LGBTI community. 3 things like objectives, beneficiary groups, focus themes, levels of desired structure and formalisation, organisational culture and organising principles. In developing this publication, the authors have tried to pay tribute to these differences while at the same time looking for the commonalities and the lessons that readers might find useful once they have adapted those to their own specific context. Process In developing the articles found here, the authors followed a four-step process to ensure that they would gain as broad as possible an understanding of the issues at hand and a deep enough insight into the causes, aspects, challenges and ways forward regarding those issues. 1. Based on its own international practice, the Schorer Foundation compiled a draft list of all questions, issues and insights that it had gathered over the last few years in terms of being and supporting LGBTI organisations. The act of collecting ideas was useful in terms of giving more depth to the questions. As Schorer realised that its understanding and practice forms only a fraction of reality, it invited others involved in LGBTI organisations to share what they considered to be the crucial themes in terms of developing the sector. 2. To start with, an online survey was initiated in which almost 200 people participated, sharing their experiences, priorities and ideas (an overview of some of the results of this survey is given in the first article). The online survey was of great value in exploring and enhancing the participants’ joint understanding and was used as a starting point for a more in-depth conversation face to face. 3. On 10 October 2011, a workshop with 30 participants from both the Global North and the Global South was hosted in Amsterdam. All participants had already had hands-on experience in working in, supporting and following LGBTI organisations and groups as they developed. The objective of the workshop was to identify, discuss and analyse some of the common issues, lessons learnt and ways forward concerning the development of LGBTI organisations. Over the course of the workshop, various issues, themes and questions were raised, organised, adjusted, re-organised, clustered and re-clustered into a number of central themes. These were further deepened to better understand the causes, develop possible solutions and share good practices. 4. A day after the workshop a team of writers took part in a writing workshop to work on the central themes and to jointly develop the skeleton of the articles. The writers were selected on the basis of a number of criteria, such as their experience with the LGBTI sector and organisational-development practice, their capacity to listen to others, their capacity to analyse and synthesise and their availability to participate in the workshop and to write an article in the months following this workshop. All of the writers were part of Schorer’s international network and were selected on their proven writing skills and their assumed capacity to work in a team of writers. 4 The ‘write-shop’ also provided an opportunity for the participants to clearly define the aim of the publication, to target the specific type of readers, and to agree on the common tone of voice and the terminology to be used. Afterwards, the writers developed the first draft of their respective articles and circulated those within the writers’ team to ensure that the articles would form a consistent overview and to prevent any obvious gaps, overlap or repetition from occurring. The first draft of each article was shared with at least three peer reviewers, most of whom had participated in the workshop on 10 October. The peer reviewers were asked to give constructive critical feedback in terms of clarity, usefulness and relevance for the targeted readers, as well as logic and completeness.

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