Welcome to a second editor at Erasing 76 Crimes
The Erasing 76 Crimes blog welcomes new editor Denis LeBlanc, who has joined editor/publisher Colin Stewart on the blog’s editorial team.
LeBlanc is well-suited for work on the blog, which focuses on the human toll of 76-plus countries’ anti-gay laws and the struggle to repeal them.
He is an HIV+ gay activist based in Ottawa, Canada, and has been an active volunteer in the Gay Liberation Movement since 1971 and later with the HIV/AIDS movement. LeBlanc also has a community journalism background, having written for and edited the Go Info tabloid newspaper from 1982 to 1988 in Ottawa.
He has been a strong supporter of LGBT rights activists in Africa and of the Erasing 76 Crimes blog. He said of the blog:
Giving voice to those without a voice and spreading the word is one of the best ways to secure liberty and freedom. Eventually, those with power will succumb because the word is always more powerful as long as it also holds truth. 76Crimes has become a trusted news source worldwide in only 2 years. It is the only news source to focus attention on those most needy countries that criminalize LBGT.
I have no doubt that it will continue to have growing influence as it expands its reach into under-served French Africa, because 76Crimes listens to those voices and gives them substance.
In the Global South, it is giving voice; in the Global West, it is raising red flags.
For more information about Denis LeBlanc, see a biography of him in the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Archives.