Being LGBT in Asia: Technical Advisory Group Members

Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) Being LGBT in Asia: Technical Advisory Group Members DÉDÉ OETOMO Founder & Trustee, GAYa NUSANTARA Foundation Adjunct Lecturer, Faculty of Social & Political Sciences and Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Airlangga Indonesia Email: [email protected] Dr. Dédé Oetomo is the founder and chair of the Board of Trustees of GAYa NUSANTARA Foundation, a community-­‐based organization working on research and education; human rights, public awareness, politics and publication; and sexual health and well-­‐being services around diverse genders and sexualities. He is adjunct faculty at Univ. Surabaya, Univ. Airlangga, and Widya Mandala Catholic University in Surabaya, Indonesia. He is an internationally recognized scholar, educator and activist in HIV and AIDS and sexuality research, training and advocacy. He has served on the International Advisory Board of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Asia-­‐Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organizations, South and Southeast Asia Resource Center on Sexuality, and the Asia-­‐Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health, of which he is currently the Interim Co-­‐chair. He was awarded the Felipa de Souza Award by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in 1998 and the Utopia Award for Pioneering Gay Work in Asia, 2001. Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) GING CRISTOBAL Project Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) Philippines Email: [email protected] Ging Cristobal joined the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)) in 2008 as Project Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific. Prior to that, she was the Executive Director and one of the founders of the Lesbian Advocates Philippines (LeAP!), Inc. and has been one of the few prime movers in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocacy work in the Philippines. Under LeAP!, she did the first research on sexual and reproductive health of lesbian in the Philippines titled, “Hidden Health: Exploring the Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Practices of Filipino Lesbians on Sexual and Reproductive Health” and documented discrimination cases of lesbian in the Philippines in the book titled, “Unmask: Documentation of Violence Against Lesbians in the Philippines.” Ging has lobbied for laws to protect LGBT rights as one of the members and founder of the Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network (LAGABLAB), a local network of LGBT organizations and individuals engaged in legislative advocacy and lobbying for laws recognizing LGBT rights, particularly the anti-­‐discrimination bill that has been languishing in Philippines Congress for last twelve years. She was also one of the founders and active members of Task Force Pride, the local network engaged in organizing the annual LGBT Pride event in the Philippines, of the Asia Pacific Rainbow, a regional LGBT organization, and a former member and party list nominee of LADLAD, a national LGBT political organization for LGBT people in the Philippines. Work in IGLHRC consists of coordinating projects such as the video documentary, “Courage Unfolds: LGBT Activism and the Yogyakarta Principles in Asia”, ongoing research on violence on LBT persons with five partner countries in Asia, and the ASEAN LGBT Caucus (ALC), a loose coalition of LGBT groups advocating for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in the ASEAN. She was the main writer and researcher of the SOGI report for the Philippines during the Philippines ICCPR review in 2012. Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) JOE N. WONG Programme Executive, Action for AIDS Fronting Transgender Movement, Asia (FTMA) Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) Singapore Email: [email protected] Joe is an advocate and activist for the sexual minorities group. He is passionate about transgender and MSM and their need to be empowered despite the challenges they may face. Working as a programme executive in Action for Aids, Singapore, he brings in his creative background in programmes implementations. He oversees the MSM and transgender HIV/ AIDS programme focusing on educating and empowering the community on the issues of male sexual health. He conducts education workshops for transgender and MSM in sex work, youth and transgender. With the experience he got from working in the local HIV/AIDS organization, he co-­‐founded Fronting Transgender Movement, Asia, an organization working on education, awareness, publications, sexual and mental health for transgenders and allies. At the regional level, Joe is an active board member on the Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN). Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) PAUL CHOI Executive Director, Human Capital Management Goldman Sachs (Asia) Hong Kong, SAR Email: [email protected] Paul Choi is an Executive Director in the Human Capital Management division of Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC. He joined the firm in May of 2000 as an Associate in Investment Banking division to manage the divisional training team for Asia. In 2002, he moved to HCM, where he become the head of Goldman Sachs University for the Asia Pacific and India regions. Over the years, he is a practitioner in the fields of Leadership, Organizational Development and Talent Management. In addition, he has been actively involved in providing training advice to the firm's key clients in Asia. He also co-­‐heads the LGBT Network for the firm in Asia excluding Japan. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, he has worked in global organizations such as Accenture, JP Morgan and Industrial Bank of Japan in the capacities of a business process consultant, global credit professional and re-­‐engineering consultant respectively, and has been working based in Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York and London. His over 20 years of international experience in global organizations place him in a unique position in terms of best practices in the area of Leadership, Organizational Development and Talent Management. Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) PREMPREEDA PRAMOJ NA AYUTTHAYA (MS.) Community Representative and Liaison Silom Community Clinic, Thai MOPH-­‐U.S. CDC Collaboration Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) Thailand Email: [email protected] Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya completed first MA in Social Development (Cultural Anthropology) at ChiangMai University in 2003. And she completed second MA in Health Social Sciences (International Program) at Mahidol University in 2007. Both of her master degree theses advocate for human rights and health rights of transgender people and sexual minorities. In 2006 she became an assistant director for Rainbowsky Association of Thailand, an LGBTQ advocacy group in Thailand and was a columnist for GM Plus magazine and wrote about homosexual people and popular culture from 2006 to 2007. She then became the project secretary of the Thai Queer Resources Centre from 2007 to 2009. She has been working on the issue of injecting drug users for Thai AIDS treatment action group since 2008 and was the project manager for “Thai Kathoei (Transwoman): Media, Health, Rights, and Ways of life.” She has been working as a consultant for international organizations on projects concerning MSM and transgenders since 2010. She is one of the founding and working group members of Asia Pacific Transgender Network. Currently Prem is working as the community representative and liaison for HIV Prevention Trial Network 067 (Thai MOPH-­‐U.S.CDC Collaboration) since 2010. She has considerable experience in giving special lectures for several Universities. Her research interests include homosexual culture, transgenderism, cyber culture, postmodernism, gender and sexuality discourses, sexual health, life narratives, queer theory, subjectivity, and performance. Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) PROFESSOR MICHAEL L. TAN, PHD Dean, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy University of the Philippines, Diliman Philippines Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Professor Tan is a medical anthropologist with degrees in veterinary medicine (UP 1977) and anthropology (MA Texas A&M University 1983, PhD University of Amsterdam’s Medical Anthropology Unit, 1996). He has collaborated with Philippine health NGOs since the 1970s and is also a published writer. His column, Pinoy Kasi is published twice a week in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. His other written work includes books and articles based on his research on such topics as indigenous medical beliefs, sex and sexuality, reproductive and sexual health, pharmaceuticals and health policy issues. He has also authored numerous books and articles. Prior to his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer in May 1997, Professor Tan was already distinguished among academics and the NGO field. Although he is now best known for his work as a columnist, Professor Tan was already a well-­‐recognized writer among academics and NGO workers when he began his Pinoy Kasi columns. As Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy at UP Diliman, a post he took in August 2010, Professor Tan devotes his concentration on inter-­‐departmental and inter-­‐college linkages, research projects, and faculty mentoring and student welfare programs. He is and affiliate professor at the College of Science, in the Tri-­‐College Philippine Studies program and in the Bioethics Graduate Program of CSSP and the UP College of Medicine and also a Clinical Professor at the UP College of Medicine where he has been directing a new Master’s degree program in medical anthropology, aside from guest lecturing at the college’s Master’s program in genetic counseling. Professor Tan brings his methods of “outside-­‐the-­‐box” thinking and critical perspectives towards gender issues and knowledge on life affecting crucial issues into the Being LGBT in Asia Initiative as a member of the Technical Advisory Group. Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) PROFESSOR VITIT MUNTARBHORN, PHD Faculty of Law Chulalongkorn University Thailand Email: [email protected] Dr. Vitit has been working at the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, for more than 30 years. He was also a Lecturer and Trainer at many human rights programmes in Thailand and other countries. He was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography from 1990-­‐1994, and from 2005 has been the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). His work mostly deals with human rights issues, including the rights of sexual minorities. He was invited as a guest speaker, a panellist, or a participant at many seminars focusing on such issue. In 2004, he was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education. He received his Bachelor and Master degrees of Laws from Oxford University. Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) XU BIN Director Common Language China Email: [email protected] Bin Xu has been a dedicated LGBT rights activist in China since 1995. She was co-­‐founder of the Lavender Phoenix (1997) and the Institute for Tongzhi Studies (2003), both US based organizations in support of LGBT activism in Chinese speaking communities. In 2005 Bin Xu founded Common Language in Beijing, a LGBT rights organization with focus on lesbian, bisexual women and transgender people in China. In 2008 Bin Xu co-­‐founded Beijing LGBT Center and has been a board member ever since. Through continuous effort, Bin Xu helped in fostering LGBT groups across China and succeeded in setting up Chinese Lala Alliance(CLA) in 2008, a cross region joint effort to provide a sustainable framework for movement building in Chinese LBT communities. Bin Xu is currently the director of Common Language and is on the advisory board of CLA as well as international organizations such as Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Her current work focuses on LGBT rights advocacy, human rights education and civil society building for equality and social justice in China. Version 1.4 (8 July 2014) MANISHA DHAKAL Deputy Director, Blue Diamond Society President of the Board, Federation of Sexual and Gender Minorities Nepal (FSGMN) Member of the Board, Asia-­‐Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) Katmandu, Nepal Email: [email protected] Manisha Dhakal is a transgender (male to female) LGBT rights activist from Kathmandu. She has been involved in Nepal’s LGBT rights movement since 2002 through different projects on HIV/AIDS, human rights activism, constitutional campaigns, advocacy, capacity building, academic research, and others. Manisha is currently the Deputy Director of Blue Diamond Society (BDS), Nepal’s leading LGBT rights organization. BDS is one of Nepal’s largest non-­‐governmental organizations with over 750 staff and 51 offices around the country. Manisha is also the president of the board of the Federation of Sexual and Gender Minorities Nepal, which is the network of all LGBT rights and health organizations. Regionally, Manisha is a board member of the Asia-­‐Pacific Transgender Network representing South Asia. She was a member of the Country Coordination Mechanism of the Global Fund (CCM). She was awarded the “Nai Ram Laxmi” award in 2010 for her contributions to the LGBT movement in Nepal. On 21 December 2007, the Supreme Court of Nepal issued a landmark verdict directing the government to enact laws enabling equal rights to LGBT citizens. Manisha was involved in court pleadings on this case on behalf of LGBT people before the Supreme Court. Manisha possesses a master’s degree in finance from Shanker Dev College, Kathmandu.