App for LGBTQ+ refugees wins World Justice challenge

The Washington-D.C.-based World Justice Project (https://bit.ly/3cMI3nv) has awarded the World Justice Challenge (https://bit.ly/3JaEbsC) Data for Justice Prize to InReach, an app providing legal aid and support to LGBTQ+ people fleeing persecution (https://bit.ly/3PHYQqG).

The prize was announced at the June 2 closing plenary (https://bit.ly/3SaV5eP) of the World Justice Forum (https://bit.ly/3zEOS3u) — a global gathering of the justice and rule of law movement held in The Hague, Netherlands, and online — and carries a $20,000 award for InReach, formerly known as AsylumConnect.

“We are so excited to win the Data for Justice Prize at this year's World Justice Challenge,” said Jamie Sgarro, InReach Co-Founder and Executive Director. “We look forward to working with the World Justice Project to continue to advance the world’s first tech platform matching LGBTQ+ people with safe, verified resources. Everyone deserves the safety and freedom to live authentically.”

See Sgarro's acceptance speech at the World Justice Forum here (https://bit.ly/3oCL7Fu).

Originally called AsylumConnect, InReach was created in 2016 to support LGBTQ+ fleeing one of the more than 80 countries where it remains illegal or unsafe to live openly as an LGBTQ+ person. Because discrimination often continues in "safe" havens, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers struggle to access legitimate local services and support, and face increased risk of detention and homelessness when accessing critical social services. Out of options, many are forced to give up on their legal claim and face deportation.

InReach’s free technology matches LGBTQ+ people fleeing persecution and other LGBTQ+ people in need with independently verified medical and mental health care, immigration and other legal help, housing, education and employment opportunities, translation services, community support, and more critical support services. It is currently active in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with plans to expand.

The World Justice Challenge (https://bit.ly/3zDwtUT) is a global competition to identify, recognize and promote good practices and high-impact projects and policies that protect and advance the rule of law. Selected from a pool of 305 applicants from 118 countries, the winners were among 30 World Justice Challenge finalists invited to showcase their groundbreaking work at the World Justice Forum.

Five $20,000 USD prizes were given to best-in-class local initiatives under the themes of Access to Justice, AntiCorruption and Open Government, and Equal Rights and Non-Discrimination. A fourth, Data for Justice, prize was given to the project that Read the rest of this story at: TheRainbowTimesMass.com to the failed policies of the administration and put much needed pressure on the government to increase funding for HIV/AIDS services.

“I had the honor and privilege of working with Urvashi at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute from 1999 to 2001, and after that, the even greater honor of becoming friends with her and Kate,” said Dr. Sean Cahill, Director of Health Policy Research at The Fenway Institute. “Urvashi was a visionary, and a veritable idea machine. In meetings, she would come up with several brilliant ideas; we would struggle to get them all down on paper and then try to implement some of them. Working with Urvashi and other community leaders, we launched the Racial and Economic Justice Initiative and the Aging Initiative. These projects led to groundbreaking research on the experiences and priorities of LGBT people of color, including the largest-ever Black Pride Survey and Asian Pacific Islander LGBT Survey. Together, we analyzed the impact of welfare reform and homeless services and policy on our communities. We produced Outing Age: Public Policy Issues Affecting

GLBT Elders, and Transgender Equality: A Handbook for Activists and Policymakers.”

In 1995, Vaid wrote Stonewall Book Award-winning Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation (https://bit.ly/3zFrUtq), which explored and critiqued the modern gay rights movement. She advocated for the movement’s focus to be on protecting the most marginalized members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

In a 2014 interview with Huffington Post (https://bit.ly/3bcnhNK), she said: “I would really like us to do two things. One is to take care of the parts of our community that are less powerful. That means low-income LGBT people, transgender people and our community’s women, whose rights are getting the crap kicked out of them, parts of our community across the board — kids, old gay people — parts of our community who are less powerful than middle- or upper-class professionals like me — for our organizations, donors, our foundations, Read the rest at Fenway Health at https://bit.ly/3Q1FM6k

Near & far: Pride celebrations

June 1

Woburn Pride flag raising @ Woburn City Hall; 5:30p; https://fb.me/e/3eLM3pSuO

Boston Pride Month Kickoff; Boston City Hall; 5:00p; FMI: https://bit.ly/3NKPmKa

Malinda Lo: Inside the Telegraph Club: On the Real History Behind Last Night at the Telegraph Club; 6-7p; Cambridge Public Library; FMI: https://bit.ly/3MOt34U

Newton Pride Flag Raising; 6-7p; Newton South Lawn (Homer St.)

June 1-30; Pride Toronto; https://bit.ly/3mUsmwx

June 4; Trans Pride: A Celebration of Liberation; All day; Boston City Hall Plaza; FMI: https://bit.ly/3tBhCH7