Haiti: ‘Cultural awareness as a tool to heal psychological wounds’
Rainbow Organization of Haiti works with LGBT+ people to build self-esteem
The Rainbow Organization of Haiti (ORAH) is working to raise the self-esteem of LGBT+ people.
In the following interview, Johnny Clergé, ORAH’s secretary general, explains the organization’s work.
“As a child I was bullied,” said Clergé, who came originally from the working class neighborhoods of Haiti, including the Martissant section of Port-au-Prince. “Now I want society’s view of LGBT+ people to change.”
Erasing 76 Crimes: Johnny, please tell us about ORAH .
Johnny Clergé: The Arc en Ciel Organization in Haiti (ORAH) was founded on March 17, 2014 and we’re an HIV/AIDS advocacy, education and awareness association. Also, we put a lot of emphasis on the cultural vector, as a factor of emancipation of sexual and gender minorities.
We are fortunate to have our own office and we also have focal points in other cities of the country, such as Miragoâne, Jérémie and Hinche.
In the current context in Haiti, we work with our beneficiaries in the field of self-esteem. We believe that cultural awareness can help heal psychological wounds.
This is why we are keen to draw on our Haitian traditions to offer dance and rara [Haitian festival music] activities to our members. In addition, we also have a library, as well as a book club that we run every Thursday.
In the context of violence in Haiti, we can allow our communities to have spaces of expression regarding the worrying current events in our country.
Our goal is to offer an alternative and open educational space to the LGBT+ communities, in order to foster the intellectual and civic awakening of our beneficiaries. We believe that this is one of the many responses to the marginalization we experience.
Today, I am happy to see that our book club is one year old.
Our priority now is to give youth access to political responsibilities, to make the LGBT+ cause more visible. This is a very long-term agenda, which we can’t ignore in the short term.
We need the public to realize that LGBT+ people can exercise the same responsibilities as everyone else, so that this will not be an issue in the future.
On May 16, 2023 a rainbow cocktail party at the Brazil-Haiti cultural center was organized with the screening of a film, while the next day, May 17, celebrated the World Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia in a secure hotel in the capital.
LGBT+ observed the different paradigms that are open to LGBT+ people on an international scale and in dialogue with their national context in Haiti. In the future, the participants would like to work in the future on [our relationships with] religion and our condition as LGBT+ Afro-descendants.
