Queer Displacements Conference

The Queer Displacements is the first and only conference in the Asia Pacific designed to comprehensibly foreground protection and settlement challenges of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) forcibly displaced people. It is created to campion the voices and the lived experience of LGBTIQ+ forcibly displaced people.

The theme of the 2023 conference is Leadership, Partnership and Belonging. The 2023 Queer Displacements will foreground the leadership of LGBTIQ+ forcibly displaced people and best and emerging practices of supports of these communities, all with a common goal of achieving belonging and ending displacement.
Our confirmed keynote speakers include:

– Artemis Akbary, founder of Afghan LGBT
– Olena Shevchenko, founder of Insight, Ukrainian LGBTIQ+ organisation
– Marianna Polevikova, managing director of For Equal Rights, Ukrainian LGBTIQ+ organisation that evacuated LGBTIQ+ community from occupied Kherson
– Danny Ramadan, Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker and advocate for LGBTQ+ refugees
– Ryan Figueiredo, executive director Equal Asia Foundation
– Prof. Churnjeet Mahn, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
– Bamby Salcedo, The TransLatin@ Coalition, USA

The Queer Displacements conference is the space for awareness raising, solidarity, building alliances and engaging the whole of society in ensuring justice, protection and solutions for LGBTIQ+ people in forced displacement.

The conference is open to all – forcibly displaced LGBTIQA+ people and the wider community. The conference is a safe space to discuss topics of displacement and belonging that are relevant to many including second or third generation queer people of colour. Community service providers and academics are highly encouraged to attend in order learn about queer displacements.