Blog

By Daniella Barreto

Pride is a celebration of 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Every year these communities host events to centre identities that are often pushed to the margins of society by creating spaces by and for themselves.

Usually, there are events around the world from large public parades and parties to smaller community gatherings. COVID-19 has forced many Pride organizers to cancel this year’s in-person events and look to alternative ways of celebrating. Regardless of its form, what remains at the foundation of the Pride movement is protest and a fight for human rights.

The history of colonization around the world is a story about control of land and perceived resources: the juggernaut of colonial power moving its way from territory to territory, continent to continent, claiming lands, resources, and people across the globe.

As this powerful system travelled around and gobbled up people to enslave, it also gobbled up the land that had been cleared of its rightful caretakers, land that was rich in quantity, quality and economic resources both above and below the soil. The two processes are connected: removing humans through whatever means, including forced displacement, labour, social collapse and infection; and asserting ownership over territory through violence, edicts, and renaming. All to gain economic, geographic, and political power.

Kelly is a 24-year-old asylum seeker from Honduras. She fled the country when she was just 12 due to violence against her based on her transgender identity. After arriving in the U.S., immigration authorities detained her in August 2017 and locked her up while she waited for the results of her asylum claim. The campaign for humanitarian parole by Amnesty activists and her many local supporters stretched back many months. Calls for her release ramped up recently when Kelly feared becoming infected by COVID-19 because of the inadequate measures taken by authorities to protect detainees and staff from the virus. Her lawyer credits this campaign for her release; there was no judicial reason for freeing her.

Here is Kelly right after her release from the detention centre in Colorado where supporters had set up a protest camp.  

On 3 July 2020 the first instance court issued its verdict on the Büyükada case. It convicted Taner Kılıç of ‘membership of the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization (FETÖ)’ under Article 314/2 of the Penal Code, sentencing him to six years and three months’ imprisonment. The court convicted İdil Eser, Günal Kursun and Özlem Dalkıran for ‘knowingly and willingly supporting FETÖ’ under Article 220/7 of the Penal Code, sentencing each of them to 25 months’ imprisonment. The remaining seven human rights defenders were acquitted.