BINGHAMTON, NY – Maurice Tomlinson, a Jamaican lawyer, gay rights activist and senior policy analyst with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, will be the guest speaker at the first LGBTQ International Human Rights Lecture, taking place from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, in Old Union Hall, in the University Union, on the Binghamton University campus. This event is free and open to the public.

Tomlinson will provide a "Report from the Front Lines" and will discuss his fight against homophobia and HIV in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean for over twenty years, and how individuals and governments can tackle global anti-gay sentiments. He will talk about his work with Jamaica’s largest LGBT organization, J-FLAG, to provide a permanent shelter (Dwayne’s House) for homeless LGBT youth. He will also discuss judicial and police LGBTI HIV sensitization trainings, and the facilitation of human rights documentation.

Tomlinson’s career path has been dedicated to ending discrimination against homosexuals, specifically in the Caribbean community. Within this broad area, Tomlinson has focused on the changing the immigration laws of Belize and Trinidad & Tobago that ban the entry of homosexuals, and the anti-sodomy law of Jamaica.

Tomlinson has received the inaugural David Kato Vision and Voice Award and the inaugural Kato Award, which recognize a person who stands up for LGBT rights around the world. From 2009 to 2011, he taught a variety of law courses at the University of Technology in Jamaica, including discrimination law, and had to flee the country when he was outed as gay in 2011. Since then, he has returned to Jamaica to continue the struggle for LGBTQI liberation on the island.

For more information, contact LGBTQ Center Director Kelly Clark at clarkk@binghamton.edu or call 607-777-6054.