Jason Landau Goodman last month met with LGBT activists from around the world.
The out 28-year-old, who serves as executive director of LGBT youth-advocacy organization Pennsylvania Youth Congress, noted the “horrific circumstances in Chechnya and other places around the world.”
“To put that in context, we have very upsetting situations and we have violence and discrimination [in the United States] but having your own country systematically and openly criminalize and kill LGBT people — [it’s] horrifying to know that happens in today’s world,” he said.
The Human Rights Watch selected Goodman to participate in the United Nations’ LGBT Core Group’s “Standing Up For LGBTI Youth.” During the panel, held May 17 at U.N. headquarters in New York City, Goodman and other activists discussed ways to create safe environments for the LGBT-youth community.
“We needed a great deal more time,” Goodman said, noting the activists on the panel had a variety of issues to discuss.
Goodman represented the United States and primarily talked about violence against trans women of color, how trans women of color should be centered in those conversations and school discrimination. Additionally, he discussed the Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs’ and the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s support for the community.
However, the conversations did not end there. Goodman and other panelists met the next day at the U.N. Youth Envoy’s office, where he said they “had a very powerful discussion about what [the Youth Envoy’s] office does, what the U.N. does in terms of responding to youth and where LGBT youth voices fit into the larger U.N. community.”
Goodman said he saw the potential for international engagement through the conversations.
“I think the LGBT movement in the United States has been very inward-facing,” he said. “We have not been engaging adequately at all with the global conversation. I think LGBT activists in the United States have a lot to learn from LGBT activists from around the world who are already using the international community to move forward in LGBT rights successfully.”
Goodman said the overall experience was “humbling” and he was “honored” to serve as a voice for the United States.
“I feel incredibly lucky to have had this experience, to continue having these relationships around the world and passing on that torch to the next generation,” Goodman said.