My name is Pedro Ivo Oliveira, and I am a Master’s Student in International and Development Studies specialising in Gender, Race, and Diversity at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Originally from Brazil, I come from a low-middle-income background and am the first person in my family to pursue a graduate program.

I have extensive experience in LGBTQI+ human rights, social inclusion, and development, having worked in international organisations and international NGOs such as the Organisation of American States (OAS), ILGA World, and currently, Outright International. I am also a Salzburg Global Fellow under the New Voices for Public Policy in Europe’s cohort.

From intersex genital mutilation (IGM) to the denial of HIV-related treatment, LGBTQI+ individuals face unique and disproportionate health challenges due to stigma and discrimination in all phases of their lives. With that in mind, my research focuses on the intersections of gender, sexuality, and health.

During my undergraduate degree, I researched the global HIV response and the specific needs of the key populations of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender persons. Currently, I am investigating the realities of drug policy and harm reduction and the challenges that disproportionately affect our communities, such as chemsex, drug use, integral health issues, and sexually transmitted infections.

Secondly, I am also interested in researching the realities of sex workers in contexts of criminalisation and neglect by the traditional forms of power and understanding their movement’s resistance and organization as a pathway for meaningful collective and community care.

I believe that we still have a long road ahead. Many countries continue to criminalize same-sex relationships and LGBTQI+ existences more broadly, and even in countries without these harmful criminal laws, discrimination, and violence targeting LGBTQI+ communities reach alarming numbers every year.Besides that, we are currently following the passing of a massive wave of anti-LGBTQI+ laws that are an enormous danger to our communities worldwide and are creating harmful consequences related to health care access and education, for example. Therefore, more than ever, we must reorganise, rearticulate, and reconvene to redesign and recreate our globalized strategies to respond effectively to these movements’ rise.

I believe that the rise of the anti-gender, anti-rights, and anti-LGBTQI+ movements worldwide, aligned with the rise of anti-democratic and authoritarian governments and administrations, is the biggest threat of the next decade. These reactionary movements are trying to (and successfully) conquer massive attention and support to undermine our communities’ civil, political, economic, social, and cultural human rights. However, every moment of crisis such as this one must be understood as an opportunity for collective mobilisation toward meaningful change. Paraphrasing one of my favorite intellectuals–the Brazilian drag queen Rita von Hunty – all human power can be resisted by other humans, and history teaches us that all tyrants will always find their way into the trash can. Therefore, we continue to work.

That’s a tricky question! I would ask for a world in which all forms of existence are celebrated; in which all human beings are entitled to competent, inclusive, and equal health care access that addresses their specific needs; and a future where we are capable of overcoming the multidimensional crises that are currently affecting us and designing a new way of living, working, and existing.

LGBTQI+ historical movements teach us that there is no separation between these two: Stonewall’s legacy, for example, became both

a political act and a celebration march.

Our communities do not face the same struggles because we are not inserted in the same contexts. Therefore, to meaningfully foster transformation and change, we must enhance our sense of transnational solidarity, and there is no better phrase to sum up it than Marsha P. Johnson’s “no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”