Kenita Placide
St. Lucia
Kenita Placide has a heartbreaking and important story to tell.
After her father’s suicide, she struggled with depression before working with United and Strong, an LGBT advocacy group in the small Caribbean country. Soon after, she was chosen to be the face of the St. Lucia LGBT community and speak publicly against anti-gay legislation at the Constitutional Reform Commission.
Placide has led United and Strong through many hardships, including her being held up at knifepoint and the group’s headquarters being burned, vandalized and burglarized,.
“Every single thing was gone, but that did not stop United and Strong. That didn’t stop me,” she confided during her talk at Quorum: Global LGBT Voices series earlier this year.
“We got this new space to help continue building the work we do: representing the community and bringing them together. It is necessary to continue educating and sensitizing the general public. And I will continue being a voice.”
Placide insists that regardless of the challenges she’s faced, “I have built a family, not just locally and nationally [but] regionally and internationally. ”
No comments:
Post a Comment