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Join ICL for an engaging session with Christopher Nkambwe—LGBTQ+ activist and founder of the African Centre for Refugees in Ontario—and LGBTQ+ activist and journalist Andrea Houston.
Christopher and Andrea will be discussing the challenges that face LGBTQ+ newcomers and the African Centre's work to organize and take action against homophobia and advocate for a safer environment here in Toronto. Christopher will be sharing her inspirational story as a trans newcomer from Uganda, and the passion that continues to drive her efforts to support LGBTQ+ rights here in Canada and in Uganda.
Christopher Nkambwe is an LGBTQ+ activist and newcomer to Canada from Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal. In April 2019, she fled persecution for being trans, and for her work within her local LGBTQ community. After four short months in Canada, she founded the African Centre for Refugees for LGBTQ+ African newcomers here in Toronto. By November she was the recipient of the Community One Grant Award for $10,000 in support of her work. She continues to do this important work, and has helped over 300 other refugees who identify as LGBTQ+.
Andrea Houston has spent her career working as a journalist, an activist and in local politics in support of the LGBTQ+ community not just here in Toronto but at a global level. Andrea has been a writer for the Toronto Star, the Peterborough Examiner, Xtra, Canada’s gay and lesbian news and as managing editor of the Torontoist. Andrea was instrumental in bringing Queer Media Studies to Ryerson University where she developed and taught the first course in Queer Media in their School of Journalism. At Queen’s Park, she served as executive assistant to MPP, and the first LGBTQ critic, Cheri DiNovo, helping to craft and pass legislation to make the province a safer and more accepting place for LGBTQ+ youth. More recently, At Rainbow Railroad, Andrea was part of the team helping queer and trans people facing persecution in more than 70 countries around the world escape to freedom.
