Summary: The inaugural Human Dignity Festival was held in Hong Kong in 2017 and was founded by Bess Hepworth from Planet Ally. In this podcast, Jules talks to Bess Hepworth, Petter Wallenberg from Rainbow Riots and Para Olympian, Theresa Goh about their activism work in the LGBTQ+ community. Bess established the Human Dignity Festival because she wanted to “create spaces of grace for hearts and minds to change.” Her goal was to bring all of the intersections together and open people’s eyes to “human rights issues that are about us all.” Bess united multi-faceted human rights communities and global activists to talk about allyship. The festival was attended by many human rights defenders ranging from people in the LGBTQ+ space, to refugees, migrants, human trafficking victims and their allies. Petter Wallenberg, is an activist and musician who is committed to stopping discrimination against LGBTQ+ people globally and promoting equality and freedom. He spoke to Jules about his amazing work with Rainbow Riots where he creates wonderful music and travels around the world recording vocals, often in places where is it is dangerous to be LGBTQ+. He discusses Queer cultural identity and there being a shared experience in being different. He talks about stereotypes and “understanding the struggle.” He shares his story about growing up and being gay in Sweden as a teen during the AIDS crisis, thus facing a lot of homophobia. The heart of Petter’s work with Rainbow Riots is based on creativity which he feels is a universal language. Theresa Goh is a Singaporean Para Olympic medalist and an LGBTQ+ activist. She talks about being gay in Singapore and how it is illegal for men to be gay, however, lesbians are not even recognized. She decided to speak out about her LGBTQ+ status after winning the Olympic medal in 2016, to help raise awareness of issues in the community. She shares her amazing experiences as a Para Olympian and her positivity is infectious. Theresa is a role model and an inspirational person with a wonderful sense of humour. The next Human Dignity Festival, to be held in Hong Kong will be coinciding with International Day of Tolerance on November 16, 2018. https://www.humandignityfestival.org/ Planet Ally: https://www.planetally.org/ Rainbow Riots: http://rainbowriots.org/ Theresa Goh: https://www.facebook.com/theresagohruisi/ Please visit my Patreon page if you would like to sponsor the production of Hong Kong Confidential Podcast. I have many great rewards to offer my supporters. Thanks for taking the time to check out the page https://www.patreon.com/hongkongconfidential?alert=2 Email: jules@hongkongconfidential.net Webpage: www.hongkongconfidential.net Network: https://www.auscastnetwork.com/home/hong-kong-confidential Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hongkongconfidential/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/juleshannaford/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hongkongconfidential/ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube and anywhere you find your podcasts. Sponsored by Teresa’s Turkish Towels https://hkturkish.com/
