• Mariela Castro Espìn - Cenesex - Cuba Mariela directs CENESEX, the Cuban national center for sexuality education. Under her leadership, the Center has relentlessly fought for the promotion of sexual and gender minorities. It’s advocacy work has triggered many political reforms, such as access to free surgery for Trans men and women. Mariela is the daughter of President Raul Castro.

• Toni Reis - ABLGBT - Brazil Toni Reis is President of the Brazilian LGBT federation ABGLT, a national umbrella organisation uniting 203 organisation and conducting information, lobbying, advocacy and campaigning activities. ABGLT has amongst many other achievements successfully lobby President Lula to officially recognize the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia in Brazil.

• Alice Nkom - ADEFHO - Cameroon Alice is a lawyer and has been defending the rights of sexual and gender minorities in an extremely homophobic context for many years. She has won many Human Rights awards and is an activist and intellectual highly respected throughout Africa and beyond.

• Paul Jansen - Hivos Paul Jansen is currently the programme officer LGBT Rights/MSM & HIV in Hivos, the Humanist Institute for the cooperation with Developing Countries, in The Hague, The Netherlands. He started working for Hivos in 2007. Before Hivos he worked in various development organizations, like VSO (manager corporate social responsibility programmes) and Population Services Lanka in Sri Lanka, where he was the project coordinator for the relief programmes for internally displaced persons in the northwest of the island. He obtained his master’s degree in development studies at Utrecht University, The Netherlands in 1998. He serves further as an advisory board member in the Asian-Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM). Next to his professional career, he worked for years in voluntary positions to strengthen the LGBT community in his city, Utrecht.

• Bin Xu - Tongyu - China Bin Xu is a dedicated LGBT rights activist in China. She became involved in LGBT activism in Beijing in 1995 and later co-founded Lavender Phoenix, a US based support group for lesbian and bisexual women in and from mainland China in 1997. In 2003 Bin Xu co-founded the Institute for Tongzhi(a term in Chinese that refers to LGBT) Studies in New York and worked as the project co-director. In 2004 Bin Xu moved back to Beijing and founded Common Language, a support and rights group for lesbians, bisexual women and transgender people in China. Through continuous effort, Bin Xu helped in fostering LBT support groups in China and succeeded in setting up Chinese Lala Alliance in 2008, a cross region joint effort to provide a sustainable framework for leadership training, resource sharing, organizational development and movement building in Chinese LBT communities.
  Bin Xu was also elected to be the only female coordinator of the national coordinating group for gays and lesbians in China in 2004, and has been on the organizing committee of LGBT films and culture festivals since 2005. In 2008 Bin Xu con-founded Beijing LGBT Center, and served as its executive director from 2009-2010.
  In 2008 Common Language received “She Changes the World” award by Mama Cash Foundation.

• Justus Eisfeld - founding co-director of GATE - Global Advocates for Trans Equality and was the first chairperson of TransGender Europe

• Mauro Cabral - founding co-director of GATE - Global Advocates for Trans Equality and former leader of Argentina based think tank MULABI. International expert on Intersex

• Susana Fried - UNDP Susana is Senior Gender Advisor in the HIV/AIDS Practice of the United Nations Development Programme, New York.

• Maurice Tomlinson - Maurice Tomlinson (Jamaica) is an attorney-at-law and has been involved in LGBTI and HIV and AIDS activism in Jamaica and the Caribbean for over 12 years. He lectures law at the University of Technology Jamaica, and is Legal Advisor, Marginalized Groups for AIDS Free World.

• Rosana Flamer-Caldera - Equal Ground - Sri Lanka Rosanna served 2 terms as Co-Secretary General for the International Lesbian and Gay Association and is also the Founder and Executive Director of EQUAL GROUND, Sri Lanka. Currently she is also an advisor for the Global Fund for Women (USA) and the Hirshfeld Eddy Foundation (Germany). She has also served on the advisory board of the OUT Games Human Rights Conference (2006 and 2009). Rosanna was elected as the 2007 Grand Marshall of Toronto Pride. She was a recipient of the Utopia Award (2005), Asia’s leading gay human rights award which recognises individuals and organisations that have contributed to improving the quality of life for the gay, lesbian, and transgendered communities across the continent.

• Oliver Phillips - Reader in Law at the University of Westminster (London, England) – founding member of GALZ (Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe

• Danielle Langlois - Canada Danielle Langlois is an expert in new communication technologies and a long-time supporter of social justice and LGBT rights. She has a master’s degree in library and information science and has worked for many years as a manager and advisor in the field of web development and electronic communications. She was born in Montreal, Quebec and currently resides in Canada’s national capital, Ottawa.

• Tamara Adrian - Diverlex - Venezuela Tamara is a lawyer and has been a Trans activist in Venezuela for many years. In 2010 she ran for nomination on the national Supreme Court.

• Nevin Öztop - KaosGL - Turkey Nevin studied American Culture and Literature at Portland State University, which is the exact same place where she was taken in by feminism. After getting involved with feminist activists throughout Portland, she was heavily inspired by queer politics and embraced the vision. She continues to serve the LGBT movement at Kaos GL since 2006.

• Joel Bedos - France Joel Bedos is currently the international coordinator of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Prior to this, he was Campaigns and Advocacy director for Oxfam France and policy advisor to Oxfam International. He has worked for over 10 years on development processes, specifically on basic education, in various regions across the world, supporting national coalitions in their advocacy and campaigning work. He has a long history of activism at grassroots level in France, specifically on Gay and Lesbian Parents’ rights.

• Susan Jolly – Researcher and former program director at Institute of Development Studies – Sussex University - England, Susan has published extensively on the issue of Sexuality and Development. She has lived in China for a long time and now works for the Ford Foundation in China.

• Ron Schlittler – United States of America – Ron Schlittler currently works for the American Psychological Association’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office as Program Coordinator. The role includes both domestic and international responsibilities. Prior to that, he worked at the local, state and national levels of the LGBT rights movement for nearly 20 years including 10 years at the national office of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in Washington, DC, with positions raging from Field Coordinator to Interim Executive Director. He earned his Master of International Policy and Practice with an emphasis in international human rights law in 2009.

• Azusa Yamashita - Gay Japan News - Japan Azusa is a leading LGBT and Human Rights activist. She is also a Journalist. She coordinates activities related to the IDAHO in Japan.

• Beatriz Gimeno - former Secretary General of the Spanish LGBT Federation. A longtime activist and academic, Beatriz has lead yearlong campaigns in Spain to reach tremendous social and political progress, with marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples being the most visible ones.

• Connie Chan - Connie has been an LGBT and human rights activist for over 15 years in Hong Kong and China. Connie is currently chairperson of the Women Coalition of HKSAR. The organisation was one of the core and main organizer of IDAHO Hong Kong Committee since 2005, the first Hong Kong IDAHO event. Connie graduated in a master’s degree in Cultural Studies in 2008.

• Maor Barazany and Yadin Sapir - IDAHO/HAVANA Israel Maor Barazani - a WordPress programmer and technology expert. Maor holds a BA degree in Philosophy and Humanities. Former admin of community forum called "politically gays" and former foreign editor of the newspaper "The Pink Time". Yadin Sapir – an IT Mananger, holds a masters degree in Public Policy and a BA degree in History. Previously instructed a political discussion group in the LGBT Association and managed (together with Maor) an internet forum called "politically gays". For several years volunteered in an help line for the LGBT community.

• Pierre Serne- Pierre Serne is treasurer for ILGA Europe and has been an LGBT and environmentalist activist for many years. Pierre was formerly in charge of international affairs at the French LGBT umbrella organisation ’Inter-LGBT’. He is currently elected Regional Councellor for the Greater Paris region.

• Aditya Bondyopadhyay - Lawyer – Advocate – India Aditya has been part of the team which has lead India’s road to decriminalize homosexuality. He is also board member of the Global Forum for MSM, a leading thinktank and international network in HIV and LGBT issues.

• Mark Gewisser – Writer and activist – South Africa

• Sonia Correa - Director of international think tank and research institute Sexuality Policy Watch based in Rio, Brazil. Sonia has published extensively on the issues of Politics and Sexuality. She sits on the board of various international academic institutions such as the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS)

• Daria Suarez - Director general of CIPAC - Costa Rica, an organisation aiming at the promotion of Human Rights for LGBT people. CIPAC develops advocacy and campaign strategies. CIPAC’s advocacy lead to the official recognition of IDAHO as a national day in Costa Rica by President and Nobel Prize laureate Oscar Arias Sanchez

• Sunil Pant -Chairperson and founder of Blue Diamond Society, a Nepali organisation fighting for the rights of ’third gender’ people. Sunil Pant is also an elected Member of Parliament. His constant advocacy and lobby has lead to the right for free gender identity to be inscribed in Nepal’s constitution.

• King Oey - Director of Arus Pelangi, an Indonesian organisation fighting for the rights of sexual and gender minorities. King is one of the representatives for Asia on the ILGA world international board. His organisation stands at the forefront of the fight against religious fundamentalism in Indonesia.

• Muthoni Wanyeki - Kenyan Human Rights Commission Muthoni has spent many years as Executive Director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission. She is now studying a post-doc in political science in France.

• Nick Perkins - Nick has worked as heads of communication for the Institute of Development Studies, a UK based University and leading think tank on issues related to sexual and reproductive rights, grassroots empowerment, sexuality and politics.

• Olivier Lachèze-Beer Olivier has been over the last years one of the IDAHO Committees main individual donors. He brings insights in how to develop the fund raising potential of the IDAHO Committee

We are constantly expanding our Advisory board - If you are interested in submitting your application to be a member, please write to Joel Bedos at jbedos@dayagainsthomophobia.org