Location: Tegucigalpa

14.072275, -87.192136

Grupo Artemisa Honduras

Grupo Artemisa Honduras is a grassroots group led by young lesbian and bisexual women of the city of Tegucigalpa.

Grupo Artemisa Honduras is a grassroots group led by young lesbian and bisexual women of the city of Tegucigalpa. Founded in 2010, with the need to create spaces to meet, connect and collectively learn about gender and sexuality, and human rights, without the fear of being discriminated against. Through education and capacity-building aimed toward lesbian and bisexual women, low-income and marginalized youth, and Honduran society in general, Artemisa aims to generate changes in attitude in Honduras towards sexuality, human rights, gender equality and security of LBT women. Their main focus is access to information, access to justice and access to freedom of association. *** En Español *** Grupo Artemisa Honduras es un grupo de base dirigido por jóvenes lesbianas y bisexuales de la ciudad de Tegucigalpa. Artemisa fue fundada en el 2010, con la necesidad de crear espacios para reunirse, conectarse y aprender colectivamente sobre derechos humanos, género y sexualidad, sin temor a ser discriminadxs. Artemisa busca generar cambios en la actitud en Honduras hacia la sexualidad, los derechos humanos, la igualdad de género y la seguridad de las mujeres LBT. Una estrategia que Artemisa utiliza es la educación y el fortalecimiento del activismo de las mujeres lésbicas y bisexuales, la juventud de bajos ingresos, y la sociedad hondureña en general. Su principal objetivo es el acceso a la información, el acceso a la justicia y el acceso a la libertad de asociación.

Love is a Revolutionary Practice

Love is a Revolutionary Practice

To love in these times is revolutionary. We are reminded, every day, how radical it is to truly love as we confront homophobic laws, violence and discrimination. As radical philanthropists, activists, organizers and artists, we fight to make this world a better place for LGBTQI folks everywhere. Love–motivating lots of hard work & brilliant organizing–will create this world. We should never have to choose safety over self-determination. An army of lovers cannot fail!

On this Valentine’s day, we celebrate our brilliant and brave community who live the Revolution of Love by:

Painting the town Pink in Colombia

        Santamaría Fundación marching for trans womens visibility and rights at the Marcha Fucsia in Colombia

Becoming Penpals with incacerated LGBTQI folks 

By building community and working to demolish the violent prison system.

Black & Pink, Astraea grantee partner running a LGBTQ prisoner newsletter and Penpal program

Raising fists against violence and demanding lesbian rights in Honduras

 

Red Lésbica Cattrachas Honduras

Taking queer and trans* power to the streets!

CUAV members in SF at the Trans* March, June 2013. Photo by Erin Johnson. 
 
Photobombing Program officers
 

E.D. J. Bob Alotta with Astraea Program Officer, Namita Chad, 2015

Making art not war, because all queer her-stories are important

 

Guyana Trans United (GTU) and the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) hosted a week-long “Stand Against Transphobia” photo exhibition of work by artist and curator Ulelli Verbeke.

Opening hearts and homes for fundraising

Astraea donors come together to raise funds at house parties to resource LGBTQI work. 

Denver House Party

Friends gather at Fran and Anna Simon’s Denver House Party, 2015  

Choosing safety over truth, and being an army of lovers marching for equality

More than 300 folks walked for equality to end all violence in Guyana

GEF March
Guyana Equality Forum (GEF), at Walk for Equality, say NO to Violence in Feb 2014, Guyana. Organized by Astraea grantee partner SASOD  

Waging love with our wallets

Every penny counts. Whether it’s $5 or $5000 every month because love and compassion go hand in hand.

To the thousands of donors who support us, we love you.

To the fearless folks on the frontlines, we love you.

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The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. That action is the testimony of love as the practice of freedom. 

– bell hooks

March Grantee News

This month, we are featuring Gender Justice LA’s work to secure gender-neutral IDs in Los Angeles; a youth empowerment collaboration between Affinity Community Services, Gender JUST, Young Women’s Empowerment Project, and FIERCE; and Red Lésbica Cattrachas’ announcement of policy reforms in Honduras around LGBTI hate crimes and femicides.

 

Gender Justice LA

Los Angeles Secures Gender-Neutral ID
Thanks to advocacy efforts by Astraea grantee partner Gender Justice LA, as well as allied organizations and community members, the new City of Los Angeles “Universal City Services Card,” a citywide identification and services card, will be gender-neutral—the new ID card will not use gender markers. “Now when you apply for a job, pay with a credit card, claim your food stamps,” Gender Justice LA announced in February, “whenever you have to show an ID, you have the option of showing this ID without outing yourself as trans or opening yourself up to harassment, judgment, and discrimination.” The group expects that Los Angeles residents will be able to apply for the Universal City Services Card in late 2013.

Connect Our Roots AttendeesPhoto by Andre Perez

Building LGBTQ Youth of Color Power
In February, four Astraea grantee partners worked in partnership to host Connect Our Roots, a three-day summit in Chicago, to share activist tactics amongst LGBTQ youth of color. Three Chicago-based grantee partners—Affinity Community Services, Gender JUST, and Young Women’s Empowerment Project—hosted the event, and worked with New York City-based FIERCE, who assembled the gathering. Over 40 LGBTQ youth of color attended the summit, representing approximately 17 organizations from 16 cities across the nation. Read more about the conference from the Windy Times’ article.

Red Lésbica CattrachasMarcher at the Feministas en Resistencia march. Photo by Gabrie Mass.

LGBTI Hate Crimes and Femicides Now Protected in Honduras
After several years of strategic policy advocacy, and research and documentation of LGBTQI human rights violations, Red Lésbica Cattrachas announced that key articles of the Honduras Penal Code have been reformed to now penalize hate crimes against LGBTI people, and to penalize femicides.

Red Lésbica Cattrachas has worked on many levels to see the policy reform to fruition. The group has organized trainings and workshops with government officials and community members and led meticulous research efforts and documentation of LGBTQI human rights violations. Additionally, their recent advocacy at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and involvement with the UN Universal Peer Review process of Honduras over the past three years helped secure the policy change.

Red Lésbica ‘CATTRACHAS’

Cattrachas is a collective of psychologists, advocates, academics, media communicators, graduate students, and activists whose main goal is to advance and protect the human rights of LGBTQI people in Honduras.

Cattrachas is a collective of psychologists, advocates, academics, media communicators, graduate students, and activists whose main goal is to advance and protect the human rights of LGBTQI people in Honduras through rigorous documentation of cases of violence against people LGBTQI, national and international advocacy at the policy level, and the creation and use of networks at local, regional and international levels. Thanks to its strategic advocacy, articles 27, 117, and 321 of the Honduran Penal Code have been reformed. These articles now penalize hate crimes against LGBTI people and femicides. Its leadership in investigating and documenting human rights violations against LGBTQI people has been instrumental in getting other co-parties in Latin America to also systematically monitor and document violence against LGBT people. Watch Cattrachas Founder Indyra Mendoza’s speech at our 40th Anniversary Gala in November 2017: *** En Español*** Cattrachas es un colectivo de psicólogxs, abogadxs, integrantes de la academia, comunicadorxs mediáticxs, estudiantes graduadxs y activistas cuyo objetivo principal es avanzar y proteger los derechos humanos de las personas LGBTQI en Honduras a través de la documentación rigurosa de casos de violencia contra las personas LGBTQI, la defensoría nacional e internacional a nivel de políticas y la creación y el uso de redes a niveles local, regional e internacional. Gracias a su defensoría estratégica, los artículos 27, 117 y 321 del Código Penal hondureño han sido reformados. Estos artículos ahora penalizan los crímenes de odio contra las personas LGBTI y los feminicidios. Su liderazgo en la investigación y la documentación de las violaciones de los derechos humanos LGBTQI ha sido fundamental para lograr que otras co-partes en América Latina también monitoreen y documenten de forma sistemática la violencia hacia las personas LGBT. Mira el discurso del fundador de Cattrachas en nuestra gala de 40 aniversario en noviembre de 2017 aquí: