New focus on LGBTI rights journalism at St. Paul’s Foundation

Starting this month, the mission of the St. Paul’s Foundation is to promote LGBTI rights through advocacy journalism.

See also:

• St. Paul’s Foundation: After 7 years of advocacy, now comes a change. (The Rev. Canon Albert Ogle discusses the past and future of the foundation he created.)
• 2018: New leadership, new focus at the St. Paul’s Foundation. (Full version of the press release announcing changes at the foundation)
• Information about the images above, with links.

2018: New leadership, new focus at the St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation

It’s a time for new leadership and a new focus at the St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation, the LGBTI rights advocacy group that inspired the creation of the Erasing 76 Crimes blog.

Starting this month, the foundation’s concentration is on the promotion of LGBTI rights through advocacy journalism. In the past, that has been just one of many approaches that the charitable U.S. tax-exempt foundation has used in its work seeking justice, fair treatment and recognition of the human rights of LGBTI people worldwide.

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The foundation, founded in 2010 by the Rev. Canon Albert Ogle, has worked for LGBTI rights in Uganda, Cameroon and Cuba; at the World Bank; and at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.

The Erasing 76 Crimes blog (https://76crimes.com) was an outgrowth of the foundation’s work in assembling a team of 26 LGBTI activists to attend that AIDS conference to push for the repeal of anti-LGBTI laws in 76 nations.

Starting with that original 2012 network of 26 activists, the Erasing 76 Crimes blog has reported on the battle for LGBTI rights — both successes and failures — in dozens of countries, from Belize and Jamaica through Tunisia, the Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya and Egypt to Russia, Chechnya, the Middle East, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. Whenever possible, the reporting is written by or based on the work of local LGBTI rights activists.

The blog, along with a companion blog in French (http://76crimesFR.com), has attracted more than 2.2 million unique visitors, including 3,892 regular followers, who in total have read its articles more than 3.6 million times. The blogs’ readers have come from every country in the world except North Korea.

Since 2015, the Erasing 76 Crimes blog has partnered with the LGBTI rights website NoStringsNG (http://nostringsNG.com), published by Nigerian activist Mike Daemon.

In light of those activities, the foundation’s board last month elected the blog’s editor/publisher, Colin Stewart, as its new president and shifted its concentration to advocacy journalism.

Foundation leader Ogle called the blog “one of the most reliable LGBTI self-reporting platforms in the world.”  He added, “I am delighted that … our board elected Colin Stewart to be our new president [to continue the] work to transform these places of extreme inhospitality and violence towards our fellow human beings.”

In recent months, Stewart and Daemon have been working on a plan for a locally led African human rights media network that would be overseen by a board representing African advocacy groups and activist websites that contribute articles and videos to the network. That proposal has not yet been widely discussed while Daemon works on setting up software for a few websites to demonstrate how such a network would function.

Daemon this month joined the board of the St. Paul’s Foundation as part of his work on the proposed network. Other board members are Lindy Miles of San Diego, California, who continues on the board after last month’s transition, and Susan Stewart of Laguna Niguel, California, the foundation’s new secretary-treasurer.

In addition to the proposed African media network, the foundation is interested in helping to set up a Caribbean human rights media network that would be overseen by a board representing Caribbean advocacy groups and activist websites that contribute articles and videos to the network.

To receive updates about future developments, please send your name and email address to stpaulsfdr@gmail.com.

To volunteer to help as an editor, social media activist, or as a French-English translator for the existing blogs or, later, for an African or Caribbean human rights media network, please send your name, contact information and brief description of your background, talents and availability to stpaulsfdr@gmail.com.

To donate in support of the advocacy journalism of the foundation and affiliated blogs, click this button:

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Using that button is the equivalent of visiting PayPal.com and sending the money to the stpaulsfdr@gmail.com account there.

Alternatively, you can send a check to St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation, c/o 21 Marseille, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 USA. Donations to the foundation are U.S. tax-deductible.

For more information, write to Colin Stewart at stpaulsfdr@gmail.com.