The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia was commemorated for the first time ever in 2014, in the form of the pioneering campaign – #WalkWithMePNG – organised by local LGBT rights group, Kapul Champions.

For a full overview of this year’s actions in Papua New Guinea you can download this pdf (1.1mb), produced by Kapul Champions.

As the organisers summarise:

The #WalkWithMePNG campaign particularly focused on the promotion of human rights, social inclusion and freedom from discrimination for all members of the PNG community but particularly for people in PNG who identify as being transgender or men of diverse sexualities.

This is the first campaign that has been launched by Kapul Champions and the first IDAHOT event held in PNG so on behalf of Kapul Champions I want to thank all of those who were involved supporting and promoting the campaign and in making it the success it has been. It has certainly given KC the confidence to continue to advocate for change in PNG.

The campaign centers around the Walk With Me poster (below), which features one of the Kapul Champions Board members “walking hand in hand with fellow Papua New Guineans to illustrate the message that all PNG citizens deserve a place in PNG society and community,” explained Nick Morea-Evera, Senior Programme Officer at KC.

Main campaign poster for #WalkWithMePNG – We Are PNG

The poster was then distributed amongst community meeting places, sports clubs, police stations, clinics and hospitals, as well as NGO and government offices, with an invitation for people to share pictures of themselves with it, together with a personal message of support.

Organisers were pleased with the result of the campaign – 130 people joined the facebook page as a result whilst images were shared of high level government officials, community leaders, police officers, UN development staff and partners, as well as regional and international supporters.

Left to Right: Margaret Munji from the National AIDS Commission Secretariat (NACs), Michael Kunjil, Deputy Director, Committee from the National Parliament and Guim Kagl, Deputy Chair of NACs. Photo Courtesy of Kapul Champions.

Special Parliament Committee on HIV/AIDS in PNG supports the campaign Walk With Me-Together We Are PNG. Courtesy of Kapul Champions.

Nick Morea‐Evera expressed his sense of achievement in launching the campaign: “2014 is the first year PNG joined the global IDAHOT initiatives and it is a great year for PNG to be among the other 120 countries marking this important day!”.

Further info

You can find out more about about Kapul Champions on their facebook page, and by following them on Twitter.