Maja continued this work after being appointed as Fund B92 Director 14 years ago, focusing on promoting responsibility and conscience through different projects that Fund B92 implements – from cultural activities through documentary film making, education and workshops for youth and for disadvantaged women, to large charity activities that aim to solve social problems in Serbia and the region. Projects dedicated to women are one of the pillars of Fund B92 and its director’s work – during the last 15 years number of projects and actions have been successfully implemented in the organization, focusing on the safety and health of women survivors of domestic violence, and development of their potentials and their contribution to building a better society.  

Ms Cecen graduated from Faculty for Media and Communication in Belgrade, at Communications department. As a journalist, she co-operated with numerous independent press media in Belgrade from 1994 till 2001 when she started working for B92. 

Previously, Dr. Mowatt held University administrative faculty positions as department chair for Sociology and for Justice & Society Studies. He guided the strategic plan of both departments and led faculty in important processes for developing curriculum that had positive impact on learning outcomes. His area of expertise is the intersection of social inequality and social psychology.

Dr. Mowatt also held key positions under two grants funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); both with positive outcomes. As a Suicide Prevention Specialist, he conducted research and developed effective programs that measurably reduced suicide risk and suicide ideation formed from social isolation and stigma. He then served as Principal investigator for SAMHSA’s HIV, Hepatitis C (HCV), and substance abuse grant where he developed a strategy for accessible HIV and HCV testing and innovated an effective social media intervention program. Both grants targeted college-aged LGBTQI, people of color, and military veterans suffering from PTSD. Additionally, Dr. Mowatt is a published author on race relations and has presented research at various conferences throughout the United States. He devotes his time out of the office developing social IQ / cultural capital mentoring curriculum for at-risk middle-school-aged kids. He is driven by improving the life chances of underserved, marginalized, and overlooked populations

The day started with Coalition’s Board Member Ms. Emelda Davis reminding us of the importance to understand intersectionality, so that marginalized groups and their political interests do not continue to be marginalized both outside and inside the LGBTQI movement that represents them, and do not create a feedback loop in which LGBTQI activism is both more difficult for marginalized activists and disproportionately less representative of their interests.

In our first session, Sally Roesch Wagner, from the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in the USA, connected the roots of discrimination and violence against women, girls and the LGBTI community in western society, to a time when canon law became common law, placing a man in control of a woman, her body, soul, her sense of person. And that historically this has become an entrenched behaviour against women, girls and the LGBTI community because ‘something that disrupts the absolute gender identity disrupts common law', canon, religious and moral right’  – and in effect, it disrupts western ways of life. 

Sally reminded us that this process extends to people of colour and colonialism in general  and that today’s fight for women and LGBTI rights is only possible because a fight for selfhood – the right to be separate from men – came before. She called on us as a network to reflect about our struggles today in the western world through the lens of western religious fundamentals. 

Antonio Parada, from Asociación Pesaje Begoña, in Spain guided us through how historical discrimination against LGBTI communities in Spain is expressed in a lack of heritage representation connected to this community’s history, struggles and achievements. Antonio reminds us that LGBTQI rights and historical discrimination that become entrenched in norms and prejudices are difficult to combat or erase in the world today.  He discussed the case of works of art that are protected as museum content but not as LGBTQI heritage in the public sphere, in essence, creating a gap of information and public consciousness about how pervasive this heritage is as human heritage, human history and human nature. Providing legal frameworks and protection for LGBTQI sites as sites of conscience and for the historical memory of LGBTQI people is important. 

Kate Potter, from Longfellow House, in the USA brought to our attention how historical revisionism through puritanical lenses can erase the open-heartedness and acceptance that existed, to be fair, within pockets of society – and that this erasure skewed our perspectives today to a reality where heteronormativity is the only reality. 

She reminded us of the importance of sharing stories is a foundation of building a movement of upending the stranglehold of discrimination, to understand the context, the history of discrimination and seek out, as a start, how to open peoples’ minds about acceptance. She also drew our attention to the centrality of normalising slow and steady dialogue along with a framing within justice and start building a movement against bias.

Lastly, Sally reminded us that even though most religions, while bringing oppressive elements/passages in their doctrines that repress women and vulnerable groups such as LGBTQI people, also have progressive elements/passages within them. It is important to unlock their potential and look for allies who believe in these progressive parts – can help push the agenda of freedom forward.

In our second session, we engaged and were deeply struck by the personal journeys shared by Julia Applegate, from Equitas Health Institute, USA and Rose Kigere, from Women’s Rights Initiative, Uganda. 

Julia shared how her journey of resistance against a system that oppressed non gender conforming people, and self discovery led her to the realization that  the roots of this discrimination she and others suffer lie in a society which is deeply misogenist, have hatred for women and femininity and carry rigid prescriptions of gender. She affirms that gender is not understood enough as a spectrum, but as a binary – and how this realisation and personal experiences allowed her with time to understand and embrace her sexual orientation, and shaped her work as an activist for LGBTI rights. She works with LGBTI communities in Ohio to memorialise places of significance for the LGBTI community and reminded us that, although oppressions may differ in different contexts the battle for LGBTI people is a world one – and that we must stand in community to win the fight at a global scale. She also called us to work through the lens of intersectionality and for those with privilege to share it with others to strengthen the anti-oppression movement.

Rose Kigere brought her personal experience and struggles as a young girl growing up in Uganda, and how being anti-conformist shaped her struggles, but also gave her strength to fight for women and girls’ rights. According to Rose, in places where the ground is not leveled between men and women, where “gender roles go with you wherever you go”, only a cohesive movement led by women can counter that reality. Only by standing up as a community can the risks of speaking up in oppressive cultures be mitigated. She pins the historical factors of discrimination against women and girls in Uganda on poverty and uneven access to quality education, therefore critical thinking. She reminds us that our strength lies within the women survivors in our communities, and their unique strategies and positions must be highlighted. Her organisation, WORI, is developing the first East African Women’s Museum to elevate the journey and stories of women from that region for the world to know.

Lastly – all speakers called on us to build a movement to confront discrimination against women, girls and the LGBTI community. 

And that brings us to today’s session, where we will draw from the experience of Sites of Conscience and their communities on how to confront bias, stigmatization and       persecution against women, girls and the LGBTI community, through programs and projects with a clear call to action.

Conversation Starter Series: Short film and panel discussion on social issue topics that tend to fall below society’s collective conscious stream of thought. 

Disarm Hate: Nine LGBTQs come together after the Pulse Massacre on a national rally for LGBTQIA equal rights and challenge America's obsession with gun violence.

Discuss the unique issues that 
impact transgender lives 

To have hopeful answers to hard questions.

Do you think that in your contexts there is a lack of reflections from the media about the perpetrators?