Trabalho de Inglês

Inês: Kenita Placide was born on July 11th, 1978, in Saint Lucia, an island
country in the eastern Caribbean Sea. She is the Executive Director
of United and Strong and the Eastern Caribbean Coordinator of Caribbean
Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities.

Carolina: She has been on the forefront of bringing LGBT issues into
discussion throughout the Anglo-Caribbean and international community.

“Saint Lucia is definitely a dangerous place to be gay”, according to the

activist.

Her activism began at Vide Boutielle as a member of the school's Drug

Free Club, where she served as a representative to the island's AIDS
Committee, and attended government health meetings from 1996 to
2000.

Inês: In 2006, Placide represented United and Strong at a regional

meeting, and the following year was elected to the Board of the
organization and has served as its co-Executive Director since that time.
With her joining the Board, United and Strong transitioned from a
primarily health driven initiative, to a human rights advocacy organization.
While their primary focus is elimination of discrimination for lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender and intersex people, the organization seeks justice
for all marginalized communities.

Carolina: In July 2011, Placide organized the first regional LGBT security
and human rights training for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean
States (OECS).This important training was designed to examine regional
constitutions and laws regarding equality, non-discrimination, and
organizations’ roles in effecting these changes.
She made history when she co-coordinated the Caribbean’s first
International Dialogue on Human Rights in February of 2012 in Saint Lucia.
Seeking to break the barriers of patriarchy in LGBTI advocacy on a feminist
platform, Kenita serves as lead organizer of the Caribbean Women and
Sexual Diversity Conference (CWSDC), an annual event first held in 2013.
Inês: Also in 2013, Placide was selected as Star Publishing's People’s
Choice for Person of the Year in St. Lucia, the first time an LGBT person
had been honored with the award in her country. She was featured in a
World Human Rights Day forum in New York, sponsored by OutRight
Action International and by The Daily Beast, in December of 2014.
Kenita has endured great difficulty as an advocate for LGBTI people in the
Caribbean. She has lost three friends who were murdered for being LGBTI,
has been threatened, mugged and attacked because of her advocacy, and
witnessed the vandalizing and arson of her organization’s offices.

Carolina: She was threatened with a knife in her throat when she was
going to the Ministry of Health, she said “I was on my way to the meeting,
when a black car pulled up. Two men jumped out, put a knife to my throat
and told me I should not be speaking on public television about gay men.
They would accept lesbians but not gays. And the next time I would
appear on TV I would be a dead woman.”

Inês: Obviously that didn’t stop Kenita, and gave her strength to keep
fighting against what she always wanted to ban.

Inês: “The vision remains however, a united and strong front line of LGBT
human rights defenders,

Carolina: (…) standing shoulder to shoulder to the tide that corrupts our
freedoms.” She said, after all.

Inês: Kenita Placide’s many achievements come from her enthusiasm, love
for volunteer work, community development, and leadership. Her work is
grounded in compassion, dignity, and justice for all.

Carolina: She believes in the statement “the personal is political” and

acknowledges her diverse identities are all important to her because they
are parts of her truth that “social justice has not always won.”

Inês: Now we will watch a small video, which will show you how Kenita
operates.