DIVA for Equality boycotted events at a conference where a USA Embassy representative was present. | Photo: Facebook/DIVA for Equality
Fiji feminist lesbian and queer groups accused the USA of ‘pinkwashing’ a Pacific LGBTI conference and vowed to boycott it.
A USA Embassy representative gave a speech at the Pacific Human Rights Conference in Fiji this week. The groups boycotted all sessions where he was present.
The Pacific Sexual and Gender Diversity Network PSGDN, in partnership with DIVA for Equality FIJI and the Pacific Community (SPC) are running the Conference.
It is themed ‘My Voyage, One Ocean, Our Journey: Pacific LGBTQI Roadmap to 2030’. The conference is aimed at developing activism and advocacy for all LGBTIQ+ people in the Pacific.
The groups said they boycotted the events because US domestic and foreign policies have ‘long been deeply problematic for all people struggling for human rights and justice’.
They said it was especially bad under the administration.
‘It is farcical for US Embassy representatives to speak at this vital Pacific conference on LGBTQI human rights, at the same time as they are actively rolling back human rights in the USA on all areas of LGBTQI rights and especially reversing LGBTQI people’s rights related to public service access, transgender people’s rights in prisons, transgender people’s rights in the US Military, and much more,’ said Noelene Nabulivou of Fiji’s DIVA For Equality.
‘We will not enter the Conference today, until they leave.’
Rejecting pinkwashing
The groups said it was shocking how ‘quickly this US administration is… roll(ing) back human rights’
‘We see this happening, we reject those policies, and US Government pinkwashing at our Conference,’ Nabulivou said.
‘The USA should not be speaking at this Conference, nor others in our region. We want it made clear that we do not agree on the speaker invitation, while we strongly support this Pacific Human Rights Conference.’
‘We stand with all people struggling for their rights in USA and everywhere.
‘Pacific people will not stand by and let these acts go by, unremarked. All of our struggles are linked.’
Gay Star News has reached out to the US Embassy in Fiji for comment.
