Omar Balde

LGBT+ trailblazer Colin Robinson has tragically died at age 59 of colon cancer.

The author and activist, from Trinidad and Tobago, died at his sister’s house in Washington, DC on 4 March.

Robinson was an LGBT+ activist for more than 40 years, fighting for pride and equality all over the Caribbean.

He founded CAISO in 2009, a Trinidadian LGBT+ advocacy organisation. In the 1990s he co-founded the Audre Lorde Project and Caribbean Pride while he was studying in New York City. Between 1998 and 2003 he was on the international board of directors of OutRight Action.

One of his most important fights was for the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex sexual relations in Trinidad and Tobago. A ban on gay sex was overturned in 2018.

As a poet, Robinson published a collection called You Have You Father Hard Head. His work appeared in journals and anthologies such as Calabash, Caribbean Erotic: Poetry, Prose, and Essays, The Caribbean Writer, Corpus: an HIV Prevention Publication and Moko.

Caribbean organisations came forward to mourn Robinson’s death, among them CAISO.

It tweeted: “We share in this enormous loss with the many communities, organisations and people who Colin collaborated with over his four decades of activism, community building and fierce commitment to human rights.”

Caribbean Vulnerable Communities, a group that fights HIV/AIDS discrimination, said Robinson’s “contribution to advancing the cause of LGBT+ people across the region in his over four decades of activism, community building and standing up for human rights is one we applaud and celebrate in his memory”.

“Organisations across the Caribbean, and indeed the world, can attest to Colin’s creatively imaginative ways of fighting for justice, always ensuring that these efforts were grounded in the collective voice, lived experiences and will of the LGBT+ community across the region,” it added.

Jessica Stern, executive director of OutRight Action International paid tribute to Robinson.

“Colin’s work for the LGBTIQ community in Trinidad was herculean, long-lasting, and transformative, he was also very clever and funny, so you wanted to know what he was thinking and would say next,” Stern said. “Though Colin’s life was too short, his impact was great and his legacy will endure,”

Two mothers’ fight for their baby’s right to EU citizenship will be heard by the European Court of Justice.

In 2019, Bulgarian-born Kalina Ivanova and Gilbratar-born Jane Jones welcomed a child, Sara, who was born in Spain (not their real names).

Under Spanish law, the baby cannot be considered for citizenship as neither of her mothers are Spanish citizens.

Jones tried to apply for Sara to be a UK citizen, as she is of British descent. However this was denied, due to Jones having been born in Gibraltar and not in the UK, meaning she cannot pass on her citizenship to her child.

As a last-ditch attempt, Ivanova requested Bulgarian citizenship for her child. This was rejected by the government, which argued that a child cannot have two mothers and refused to issue a birth certificate stating as such.

As a result Sara has been deprived of citizenship and has no documentation of any kind. This poses a significant risk to her health, education and social security, and prevents the family from leaving Spain.

The case will be brought before the European Court of Justice (CJEU) on 9 February. According to the mothers’ legal representatives, Bulgarian authorities are violating the rights of a European citizen on the grounds of sexual orientation, namely the rights to free movement and to family life. 

The citizenship battle is a breach of the fundamental principals of the EU, the court will hear. 

Arpi Avestisyan is head of litigations at ILGA-Europe, which is supporting Bulgarian LGBT+ rights group Deytsvie with the citizenship case.

Avestisyan has called on the court to make things easier for all LGBT+ families to gain citizenship.

“Through this case, the CJEU has the opportunity to clarify that parentage established in one member state must be recognised across the EU, and all EU citizens and their families equally enjoy freedom of movement.”

Avestisyan also referred to the words of EU president Ursula Von der Leyen.

“In her state of the union 2020 address, president Ursula von der Leyen said: ‘If you are parent in one country, you are parent in every country’. 

“However, thousands of same-sex-parented families in the EU currently live at risk of not having the parental relations recognised and face legal turmoil due to differences in member states’ national systems.