Revealing the background of the Erasing 76 Crimes news site and its editor

LGBTQ activist reporters are key in quest for justice and peace, Colin Stewart says in interview.

Colin Stewart stands next to a word cloud composed of the 46 names of innocent LGBTQ prisoners released by Project Not Alone. (Photo illustration by Colin Stewart)

The online self-improvement magazine Bold Journey recently published an interview with Colin Stewart, editor/publisher of Erasing 76 Crimes and president of St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation. In the interview, Stewart tells how he became an LGBTQ rights advocacy journalist and describes the work of the foundation, including the Qtalk counseling app for LGBTQ Nigerians and Project Not Alone, which has freed 46 innocent imprisoned victims of African homophobia.

The content of the interview is below. One difference: The photos here have captions, which the format of Bold Journey somehow does not allow.

Colin, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I’m a Christian, though not a Trump-supporting evangelical Christian. I tend to be characterized as a progressive Christian, which lately seems to be something of a rare breed. That’s where I find my purpose. As a Christian, I believe that, among other things, my purpose is to love my neighbor as myself, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. Those beliefs have led me to the work I’m currently doing.

Back when I was a young man, I decided on a career in journalism because that would allow me to combine my interest in social change and my love of language.

As a journalist, I have reported over the years on divisive issues ranging from school busing to plastic surgery. My beat changed from time to time in concert with the changing interests of editors and readers at the different newspapers where I worked.

After I retired from paid journalism, I remained a journalist and could focus my work more directly on striving for justice, respect and dignity for people who are shunned, disrespected and unjustly imprisoned. That was possible by working as a journalist at a non-profit organization instead of at a for-profit newspaper.

That arrangement came about after a gay Episcopal priest invited my wife and me to help raise money to allow LGBTQ rights activists from nations with anti-homosexuality laws to come to the United States to address the International AIDS Conference in 2012. The message that they came to deliver was that AIDS cannot be defeated so long as anti-homosexuality laws exist that classify gay and other HIV-positive people as criminals, which excludes them from effective health care.

As I got to know and like those activists, working with them was a straightforward way to love my neighbor as myself, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.

LGBTI activist / journalist Steeves Winner poses with four gay men who were freed from prison in Cameroon by Project Not Alone. Their faces are obscured for their safety. (Photo courtesy of Steeves Winner) — LGBTI activist / journalist Steeves Winner poses with four gay men who were freed from prison in Cameroon through the work of Project Not Alone. Their faces are obscured for their safety. (Photo courtesy of Steeves Winner)

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

LGBTQ rights activists and I have become teammates as they continue their activism and add new work as journalists. Over the years, I have relied on them to set the direction of our coverage and to indicate how they and I can best serve their local LGBTQ communities.

This setup started during the AIDS conference of 2012, I got to know many LGBTQ rights activists and decided to use my talents as a journalist to help them spread their message. The first step was founding the Erasing 76 Crimes blog which reported on the human toll of then 76 countries’ anti-gay laws and the struggle to repeal them. The number of such countries has now dropped to 64 and the former blog is now a full news site, running in partnership with the African Human Rights Media Network and two affiliated sites, RightsAfrica.com and 76crimesFR.com.

At the initiative of LGBTQ rights activists, we have launched two projects that do important work on behalf of disrespected and criminalized LGBTQ people. Those initiatives are Qtalk, a free, confidential online counseling app for LGBTQ Nigerians, and Project Not Alone, which uses news articles to raise money to feed and free imprisoned victims of African homophobia. So far, Project Not Alone has won early release for 46 innocent people who have run afoul of anti-homosexuality laws in Cameroon and Nigeria.

LGBTQ activist / journalist Mike Daemon created the Qtalk counseling app for LGBTQ Nigerians. (Photo courtesy of Mike Daemon)

Please tell our readers about what you feel is most exciting or special about your work.

We depend on readers who donate to support the work of LGBTQ advocacy journalism. CLICK HERE if you’d like to become a supporter too.

We have recently completed the 2024 work of Project Not Alone, which fed and set free five gay men in Nigeria and Cameroon and five lesbians in Cameroon. In preparation for 2025, Cameroon reporter Steeves Winner will visit prisons to see who will qualify for help from Project Not Alone. Only prisoners who have been accused of violating nothing other than anti-homosexuality laws can qualify for our help. If you want to help, CLICK HERE.

Qtalk currently has about 2,500 users. To help keep that app updated and to help pay the expenses of our volunteer counsellors, CLICK HERE.

Erasing 76 Crimes worked with Amsterdam Pride Walk in 2017 to organize a protest against nations with anti-homosexuality laws. (Photo courtesy of Amsterdam Pride Walk)

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

These three qualities have been important in my work:

Patience. I tend to be a patient man. I don’t know how that quality can be developed.

Intersex Nigerian woman is telling her story through Facebook

Support from family. I am loved, accepted, re-energized and helped to relax. Without that, I could not go on. I would burn out.

Focus on what readers need and want. As a journalist, that’s my touchstone again and again. It helps me decide multiple questions every day and helps to keep me from getting distracted and seduced into other approaches and tendencies, such as doing what we always done, what’s stylish, what’s quick and easy, etc.

Colin and Sue Stewart (Photo from family collection)

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Maintaining good work/life balance is what usually keeps me from being overwhelmed and always helps me recover when I am overwhelmed.

When the pressure or the anger or the disappointment gets too great, I can turn away from work and spend time with family, or playing, or on vacation, or just watching TV with my wife.

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