Kristi Pinderi is an Albanian activist advocating for LGBT community [1] rights and a freelance journalist resident in Canada. [2] He is the founder of the Pro-LGBT organization in Albania. [3]
Kristi Pinderi is an Albanian activist advocating for LGBT community [1] rights and a freelance journalist resident in Canada. [2] He is the founder of the Pro-LGBT organization in Albania. [3]
Kristi Pinderi, known in Albania as an LGBT rights activist, has fled Albania, and lives in Canada. He came out to his family at the age of 27. [4]
In March 2012, he established Pro-LGBT, an organisation that works mainly to raise awareness about LGBT topics. In May of that year, along with 8 other activists he pedaled at the Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard in Tirana in what was called the first pride event in Albania. [5]
During the parliamentary elections of 2013, Pinderi, together with activist Xheni Karaj, developed for the first time a series of consultations with key political parties to include LGBT rights reference in their programs. In the framework of that initiative, Pinderi and Karaj had the opportunity to meet with former Prime Minister Sali Berisha and with his challenger Socialist Party leader Edi Rama. [6] As a result of these lobbying efforts, Albania adopted in 2016 a National Action Plan for LGBTI people, [7] a plan that was welcomed by the former Albanian Ombudsman Igli Totozani. In December 2014, Pinderi was a co-founder of the STREHA, a residential shelter assisting homeless LGBT youth, the first such center throughout South East Europe, [8] supported by USAID, the British Embassy in Tirana and the British organization Albert Kennedy Trust.
In May 2015, along with Karaj, he produced a long-featured documentary entitled SkaNdal, directed by Elton Baxhaku and Eriona Camit. [9] The documentary was about the history of the LGBT movement and it featured at several international film festivals, such as at the Sarajevo Film Festival, at DokuFest in Prizren, etc.
In his years of activism, Pinderi is known for several heated debates in the media with politicians, and with figures from the art and culture environment, with journalists, as well as for some long lasting controversial media debates with former Albanian MP Mesila Doda (an opponent of same-sex marriages, [10] compared by Pinderi as an Albanian Anita Bryant [11] ) or with the singer Eneda Tarifa, whom he publicly called a homophobic person after she made some controversial comments when singer Conchita Wurst won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014, [12] with actor Julian Deda, with journalist Enkel Demi, etc.
In June 2019, while studying at Langara College, he started working as the lead facilitator for a support group for LGBTQ+ newcomers in Surrey, British Columbia, a project hosted by DIVERSEcity, a community resources and resettlement non-profit in Canada. [13]
In Canada he is often invited to speak as an advocate for refugees. In a recent event organized by University of British Columbia, where he studies in the School of Social Work [14] and other organizations he spoke about borders and how they can be reimagined in a more human-centered way. [15]
In 2021 Pinderi was a finalist of the 13th annual Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards, [16] a national awards program presented by Canadian Immigrant magazine, and awarded annually to 25 inspirational immigrants, who have made a difference to Canada, whether they are a community advocate, a successful entrepreneur, an artist or a volunteer. [17]
In January 2020 he published his memoir entitled "1997", a publication supported by the European Union. [18] During the promotion of the book, feminist activists Xheni Karaj and Gresa Hasa read short paragraphs, and lead a discussion focusing especially on the disclosure of intimate events experienced by Pinderi, such as sexual assaults and repeated violence during his adolescence in Pogradec. The book is considered the first memoir written by an openly gay man in Albania, and the first publication by an Albanian author that deals with issues such as sexual violence, and child abuse. [19]
At the end of May 2017, Pinderi left Albania due to the many threats, [20] a year after the death of his mother, Liljana Priftuli, following a long illness. She was among the first mothers who publicly supported the rights of LGBT community in Albania. [21] In an article on Dailyxtra, a Canadian media outlet, Pinderi talked about the difficult situation that the LGBT community is facing in Albania and the reasons that forced him to go to Canada, together with his partner, Erjon Tela, also one of the first LGBT rights activists in Albania. [22]
Egale Canada is an advocacy organization founded in 1986 by Les McAfee to advance equality for Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families, across Canada.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Bahamas have limited legal protections. While same-sex sexual activity is legal in the Bahamas, there are no laws that address discrimination or harassment on the account of sexual orientation or gender identity, nor does it recognize same sex unions in any form, whether it be marriage or partnerships. Households headed by same-sex couples are also not eligible for any of the same rights given to opposite-sex married couples.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Turkey face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, though the general climate for LGBT people is considered to be less repressive when compared to most other Muslim-majority countries.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Albania face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, although LGBT people are protected under comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. Both male and female same-gender sexual activities have been legal in Albania since 1995, but households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-gender couples, with same-sex unions not being recognized in the country in any form.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Armenia face legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, due in part to the lack of laws prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity and in part to prevailing negative attitudes about LGBT persons throughout society.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Azerbaijan face significant challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Azerbaijan since 1 September 2000. Nonetheless, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity are not banned in the country and same-sex marriage is not recognized.
Festivali i Këngës në RTSH, commonly known as Festivali i Këngës and also referred to as simply FiK or Fest, is an annual music competition in Albania organised by the national broadcaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH). Broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1962, the festival has determined the country's representative to the Eurovision Song Contest since 2004.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Nepal have evolved significantly during the 21st century, though barriers to full equality still exist within the nation. In 2007, Nepal repealed the laws against gay sex and introduced several laws which explicitly protected "gender and sexual minorities". The Nepalese Constitution now recognizes LGBT rights as fundamental rights. On 28 June 2023, a single judge bench of Justice Til Prasad Shrestha issued a historic interim order directing the government to make necessary arrangements to "temporarily register" the marriages of "non-traditional couples and sexual minorities". The full bench of the Supreme Court has yet to deliver a final verdict. The first same-sex marriage of a trans woman and a cisgender gay man occurred in November 2023. Nepal will be the first least developed country and the first in South Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and the second in Asia after Taiwan.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Kosovo have improved in recent years, most notably with the adoption of the new Constitution, banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. Kosovo remains one of the few Muslim-majority countries where LGBT pride parades are held annually.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Laos go unreported and unnoticed. While homosexuality is legal in Laos, it is very difficult to assess the current state of acceptance and violence that LGBT people face because of government interference. Numerous claims have suggested that Laos is one of the most tolerant communist states. Despite such claims, discrimination still exists. Laos provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for any of the rights that opposite-sex married couples enjoy, as neither same-sex marriage nor civil unions are legal.
Albania does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions. A bill to legalize same-sex marriage had been introduced to Parliament in 2009 with the support of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, but was never voted on.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in North Macedonia face discrimination and some legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity have been legal in North Macedonia since 1996, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex married couples.
Mesila Doda was one of the first members of the Democratic Party of Albania and a member of the Albanian parliament from 2001 until 2017.
Thomas Neuwirth is an Austrian singer and drag queen who is known for his stage persona Conchita Wurst. Neuwirth came to international attention after winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 as Austria's entrant with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix". Neuwirth has stated that he is not a trans woman. He is gay, and has also described himself as a drag queen.
Eneda Tarifa is an Albanian singer, actress and television host. She represented Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, after winning the 54th edition of Festivali i Këngës.
Homonationalism is often seen as the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights, but is further described as a systematic oppression of queer, racialized, and sexualized groups in an attempt to support neoliberal structures and ideals. The term was originally proposed by the researcher in gender studies Jasbir K. Puar in 2007 to refer to the processes by which neoliberal and capitalist power structures line up with the claims of the LGBT community in order to justify racist, xenophobic and aporophobic positions, especially against Muslims, basing them on prejudices that immigrants are homophobic and that Western society is egalitarian. Thus, sexual diversity and LGBT rights are used to sustain political stances against immigration, becoming increasingly common among far-right parties. In Terrorist Assemblages, Puar describes homonationalism as a "form of sexual exceptionalism [dependent on the] segregation and disqualification of racial and sexual others" from the dominant image of a particular society, most often discussed within an American framework.
Anti-gay purges in Chechnya, a part of the Russian Federation, have included forced disappearances, secret abductions, imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial killing by authorities targeting persons based on their perceived sexual orientation, primarily gay men. At least 2 of the 100 people, whom authorities detained on suspicion of being gay or bisexual, have reportedly died after being held in what human rights groups and eyewitnesses have called concentration camps.
Miss Trans Albania is a beauty pageant for transgender people organized annually in Albania. It was first held in 2014 in Tirana.
Xheni Karaj is an Albanian LGBT rights activist, and co-founder and current executive of Aleanca LGBT organization.
The Eurovision Song Contest has had a long-held fan base in the LGBT community, and Eurovision organisers have actively worked to include these fans in the contest since the 1990s.