A 30-something pakeha "Kiwi" with Australian connections, previously a legal/policy adviser for Human Rights Commission and Ministry of Justice. Member of the Civil Union Bill Committee, educator on same-sex law reform and sexuality issues, and co-founder of numerous GBLT organisations, including a national lobby group. B. Arts and Mistress/Master of Laws, with emphasis on gender/sexuality topics. Currently working mainly from bed as a part-time consultant, writer and law teacher (afflicted with chronic (ill)-health and minority sense of humour). Local GBLT activist for over 10 years, with special interest in partnership recognition systems, statutory consistency in the treatment of same-sex couples and families, bisexual discrimination/ diversity politics, and Bill of Rights/human rights. Living with 3 cats and part-time custody of 2 dogs.

Aditya Bondyopadhyay, born 20 February 1972, is a lawyer based in New Delhi India. He first attended Calcutta University and thereafter studied Law in the University of Burdwan, both in West Bengal, India. In a country where same sex relations are criminalized and queer people often targeted with severe violence and discrimination, Aditya Bondyopadhyay has been an ‘out’ activist for the rights all sexualities since 1993. He has also worked for the same time with the HIV/AIDS movement in South Asia for prevention intervention of male to male sexual [MSM] transmission. As part of his work he has been associated with the Lawyers Collective, one of India’s leading Human Rights Groups, and with the Naz Foundation International, a London based agency that has helped set up over forty community owned HIV projects for MSM in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

He was part of the legal team that researched and drafted the petition filed in the Delhi High Court challenging the constitutionality of India’s anti-sodomy law [Section 377 Indian Penal Code]. In 2001, when raids were conducted in the city of Lucknow, India on NGOs working for HIV prevention with MSM and offices were sealed and AIDS workers arrested, he represented the organisations and the arrested individuals in court, and ensured the unsealing of the offices and the continuation of their work. He is also part of the legal team that is aiding Blue Diamond Society, Nepal’s only Gay Group, in defending a challenge to their existence and functioning brought before the Nepali Supreme Court.

He was the first Asian and the third queer person in the world to testify before the United Nations Committee on Human Rights, against the state supported and sponsored oppression of sexual minorities in India. He has conducted extensive research on Human Rights violations of sexual minorities in South Asia, and regularly tours the region to conduct legal/Rights literacy training and workshops with Sexual minority groups. As part of his HIV activism he also continues to work for the Human Rights concerns of other affected populations like sex workers, transgender people, drug users, and HIV positive people. He is a member of the National Executive of the Indian Network of NGOs, a coalition of over 400 HIV NGOs from across India, and a coordinator for the Asia Pacific Rainbow, a coalition of GLBTQ organisations and individuals from the Asia-Pacific Region. He has also officiated as an international advisory committee member of the 7th International Convention on AIDS for Asia-Pacific [Kobe, Japan].

He is an active member of the ‘Voices Against 377’ campaign in India and the ‘National Campaign for Sexuality Rights’.

In spite of all of the above, he is a CRIMINAL, for in India he has chosen to live together with his boyfriend for the last 3 years and love him in a way that can send him to jail for a few hundred sentences of ‘imprisonment for life’.

Rodney Croome will be known to many LGBT Australians as a spokesperson for the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group. In that capacity he fronted the long, bitter and ultimately successful campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in Tasmania. That campaign saw Tasmanian activists take their case for equality not only to the parliament and people of Tasmania, but to the United Nations, the Federal Government and the High Court. Thanks to the work of Rodney and many other Tasmanians, the island state has been transformed from having Australia's worst laws and attitudes on homosexuality to having the best.

Less well known is Rodney's other LGBT community work. He has been the project officer of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's rural LGBT youth network, Outlink, and Co-convenor of the Australia Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In this latter capacity in 1993 Rodney became the first gay advocate to speak at a United Nations forum. Currently Rodney is a member of Tasmania's four LGBT community / government liaison committees and is a Board Member of the Tasmanian LGBT support organisation, Working It Out. In this position Rodney has taken a leading role in establishing a standard challenging-homophobia curriculum in Tasmanian state schools.

Rodney grew up on a dairy farm in Tasmania's North West and studied European History at the University of Tasmania. He has been the editor of the Tasmanian literary journal, Island, and a research consultant for the Port Arthur Management Authority and the Australian National University-based Freilich Foundation. Rodney recently received a grant from the Australia Council to write a book on his experiences.

David Cruz is is a constitutional law expert focusing on civil rights and equality issues, including equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. He specializes in discrimination law and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. He teaches Constitutional Law I; Constitutional Law II; Federal Courts; Sexual Orientation and the Law; International/Comparative Perspectives on Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation; Identity Categories; and Law, Identity, and Culture.

Before joining the USC Law faculty in 1996, Professor Cruz was a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General in Washington, D.C. He also clerked for The Honorable Edward R. Becker, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He is past chair of the AALS Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues.

Professor Cruz graduated from the University of California, Irvine and earned his master’s degree from Stanford University. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was managing editor of the New York University Law Review.

Professor Cruz’s academic publications include “Spinning Lawrence, or Lawrence v. Texas and the Promotion of Heterosexuality” (Widener Law Review, 2005); “Mystification, Neutrality, and Same-Sex Couples in Marriage,” in Mary Lyndon Shanley’s Just Marriage (Oxford University Press 2004); “Making Up Women: Casinos, Cosmetics, and Title VII” (Nevada Law Journal, 2004); and “Disestablishing Sex and Gender” (California Law Review, 2002).

Atty. Magdalena "Daymeg" Lepiten is the executive director for lesbians of GAHUM-Philippines Inc., a non-government organization based in Cebu City working to promote and defend human rights of Filipino Sexual Minorities (FSM). In her more than 10 years practice of law, she has represented FSMs, women, children, labor unions, peasant, environment including the mangroves of Cebu. Her advocacy goes beyond the courtrooms as she has shaved her hair off for Cebu's environment, stripped to her black bra and panties and ran around City hall to stop bulldozing of Cebu's mountains. In last May's Labor Day, she led other gays and lesbians all wearing only towels (in diversity colors) to advocate for equal rights of LGBT in the workplace. She is also the president of the Philippine Media Center for Advocacy, a non-government organization working for a development-oriented media.

Atty. Lepiten is also active in research; recently serving as team leader in the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s 2001 study on children's involvement in the production, sale and trafficking of illegal drugs in Cebu City.

She holds office at her home which she shares with her partner, Fionah. Her three kids, Nikko and twins Nikki and Nikka take over her office on weekends.

Douglas is a partner in the Toronto firm of Roy Elliott Kim O'Connor LLP (REKO). Douglas is a co-founder of ILGLaw and was its first president He was the founding co-chair of the Lesbian and Gay Issues and Rights Committee of the Ontario Bar Association, and founding co-chair of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee of the Canadian Bar Association.

Douglas has represented a diverse range of community organizations in some of Canada's most significant lesbian and gay equality cases in the Supreme Court of Canada and elsewhere, including Vriend v Alberta, M v H, Little Sisters Bookstore v Canada, Trinity Western University v BC College of Teachers and Hall v Powers. Douglas is currently representing the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto in its equal marriage litigation, and is lead counsel in Hislop v Canada, a nationwide class action seeking same sex survivors' pensions from the Canada Pension Plan.

He has lectured extensively on the topic of lesbian and gay equality and AIDS in a variety of settings domestically and internationally, including lectures at the Canadian Bar Association, Commonwealth Lawyers Association, International Bar Association, American Society of International Law, University of Niigata (Japan) and University of California.

Doctor in Law (University of Torino, 1998), LL.M. (James Kent Scholar) (Columbia University School of Law, 2004), currently J.S.D. candidate at Columbia Law School, New York, working on the question of human rights of “sexual minorities”. He is Director of the Center for research and legal comparative studies on sexual orientation and gender identity (CERSGOSIG), of its database, and of the CERSGOSIG network. He served as Italian member and of the European Group of Experts on Combating Sexual Orientation Discrimination. He has been the conceiver and the coordinator of the CERSGOSIG-InformaGay project and advocate to the Italian NGO InformaGay. He is the pro bono legal adviser to the New Rights Section of the national trade union Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (Italian Labour General Confederation). He is legal adviser and expert to European as well as local projects in the field of antidiscrimination law, and author of several bills presented to the Italian Parliament, namely on transsexual rights, legal recognition of same sex and de facto couples, non discrimination.

He is an invited speaker in conferences and other events on LGBT issues, as well as author of articles and other publications on the same topics. In particular, he is the editor (together with Maria Gigliola Toniollo) of the book “La discriminazione fondata sull'orientamento sessuale” (Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation), Rome, 2005.

Lisa Forman qualified as a lawyer in South Africa with a BA and LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand, and received a Masters in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, exploring the role of human rights in increasing access to AIDS medicines. In South Africa Lisa practiced in HIV/AIDS law, advocacy and research, and participated in gay and lesbian advocacy, including participation in early campaigns around the right to marry, and on the 1998 Johannesburg Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee.

She specializes in international human rights law and South African constitutional law in relation to health and HIV/AIDS in particular. Lisa has worked in Lusaka, Geneva and New York on HIV/AIDS and human rights-related projects, is an invited conference speaker and guest lecturer, and has published academic articles and book chapters on related topics. Currently living in Toronto, Lisa is tending to a neglected passion for running as she ploughs through the final stages of her doctoral thesis.

Helmut Graupner (born 1965), 1989 Master of Law; 1996 Doctor of Law; 2000 admitted to the Bar in Austria and in the Czech Republic; since 1991 president of Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), the Austrian lesbian and gay rights organisation (www.RKLambda.at); since 1992 Co-President of the Austrian Sexological Association (ÖGS, www.oegs.or.at); expert to the Austrian Federal Parliament on issues of sexual offences legislation and antidiscrimination legislation; member of the Expert Committee on the Revision of the Law on Sexual Offences appointed by the Austrian Minister of Justice (1996-2004); Since 1999 member of the World Association for Sexology (WAS); Since 2000 member of the editorial board of the Journal of Homosexuality (Haworth Press: New York); since 2000 Vice-President for Europe of the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association (ILGLaw); since 2001 member of the Scientific Committee of the Center for Research and Comparative Legal Studies on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (CERSGOSIC), Turin www.cersgosig.informagay.it; lecturer in law at the University of Innsbruck ("Sexuality & the Law").

Successfully litigated several gay-rights cases before the European Court of Human Rights (L. & V. vs. Austria 2003; S. L. vs. Austria 2003; Woditschka & Wilfling vs. Austria 2004; Franz Ladner vs. Austria 2005, Thomas Wolfmeyer vs. Austria 2005; H.G. & G.B. vs. Austria 2005) and before the Austrian Constitutional Court (Case G 6/02 leading to the striking down of the discriminatory age of consent). Recently co-edited the books Sexuality & Human Rights - A Global Overview (New York: Haworth Press 2005) and Adolescence, Sexuality & the Criminal Law - Multidisciplinary Perspectives (New York: Haworth Press 2005).

Aeyal M. Gross is a faculty member at the Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law in Israel. Aeyal is a co-founder of ILGLaw. He specalizes in constitutional law, international law, human rights, and the law realting to sexuality. He is also a member of the board and chair of the legal committee of of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. He was the pro bono legal advisor of Israel's GLBT group between 1999-2005.

He received his LL.B. in 1990 from Tel-Aviv University and his S.J.D. at Harvard Law School in 1996. He also received a Diploma in Human Rights from the Academy of European Law, the European University Institute, in 1998. He publishes articles in academic journals in his issues of expertise, and also often contributes columns to the press in Israel.

Tamara Adrián Hernandez
Female Director for South America
email: tamara_adrian@hotmail.com

Dr. Tamara Adrián Hernandez is a law professor at the University of Caracas - Venezuela. A transgender woman and attorney (she is General Director of the firm Adrian & Adrian Abogados Consultores in Caracas, Venezuela), Dr. Adrián Hernandez has worked with LGBT organizations in Venezuela and litigated before the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela.

Martha McCarthy is a partner in the firm of Epstein Cole in Toronto, Canada. She is certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a specialist in family law. Martha was lead counsel in the landmark Canadian cases of M v H and Halpern v. Canada. These constitutional rulings have made Canada one of the leading countries in the world in its legal recognition of same sex relationships. Martha is widely recognized as one of Canada's leading constitutional and human rights lawyers, and has lectured and published extensively on these subjects and family law both domestically and internationally.

Karon has a strong UK practice encompassing the fields of discrimination and equality, human rights and EU law, but she is predominantly known for her work in discrimination law. She is a Member of The Bar Race Relations Committee, the Equal Treatment Advisory Committee of JSB (2003 ­ 2007) and the Fawcett Commission on Women in the Criminal Justice System.

She is regularly instructed by the Commission for Racial Equality, Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission. She appears in discrimination cases in UK employment tribunals and also appears in discrimination cases and actions against the police and other public authorities outside the employment field. She lectures widely on discrimination law and provides training for a number of organisations with an interest in discrimination law. She is a founder member and Vice Chair of the Discrimination Law Association.

Her regular conference appearances include, for example: EOR/TUC Annual Discrimination Conference 2000-2004 (London); Bar European Group AGM 1999 (Trier); Industrial Law Society 1998 (Oxford); Discrimination Law Association. She also provides training for a number of organisations including: Liberty (1999 - 2002), Discrimination Law Association (1998 - 2004), EOR (1999 - 2004), Commission for Racial Equality (2000 - 2003), and Legal Action Group.

Karon’s memberships of professional and other organisations include: The Discrimination Law Association (founder member and committee member 1997-2002 ­ Chair 2002 ­ 2004); The Employment Law Bar Association; The Industrial Law Society; The Bar European Group; EAT ELAAS scheme; and the Bar Pro Bono Unit.

Abogado egresado de la Universidad Militar Nueva Granada. Ha presentado informes de violación de derechos Humanos ante la ONU. Conferencista en temas de acciones de defensa de los derechos humanos a nivel nacional e internacional. Profesor Universitario. Fue el autor material e intelectual del documento de Régimen Patrimonial Especial y de Convivencia entre pareja del mismo Sexo con plenos efectos legales, llamado socialmente Matrimonio Homosexual en Colombia. Mediante acciones judiciales ha obtenido que el máximo tribunal constitucional se pronunciara sobre el derecho a la igualdad de gays y lesbianas, el derecho fundamental de la libre orientación sexual, el derecho que asiste a gays y lesbianas de conformar acuerdos económicos, que los profesores homosexuales no fueran sancionados por ese solo hecho y pudieran hacer explícita su condición, defensa de bienes de parejas del mismo sexo luego del fallecimiento.

Redactor y miembro del comité de impulso del proyecto de ley por el cual se protegen los derechos de las parejas del mismo sexo en Colombia. Ha asesorado y gestionado el cambio de nombre de personas transgeneristas para pasar de nombre masculino a femenino y viceversa.

En el tema de vih y sida ha obtenido indemnizaciones a favor de personas que han sido excluidas laboralmente por estar viviendo con el vih o con el sida, prestación de servicios de salud, odontología, nutrición, entrega de los antiretrovirales, realización de examen de carga viral, derecho de reunión de grupos de autoapoyo. Ideador y miembro de la comisión redactora de la Declaración de Rio de Janeiro (sobre la injerencia de los Estados Unidos de América en las decisiones de los países que avalan medicamentos genéricos) Declaración del Forum 2000 (acceso universal de medicamentos a personas viviendo con vih o con sida), Declaración Latinoamericana de Cali de personas que viven con vih o con sida.

Representante legal de la empresa G&M DE COLOMBIA ABOGADOS. Fundador y Director de los Boletines electrónicos de la Red Hispana de Derechos Humanos en vih ­ sida y minorías sexuales y Proyecto Agenda Comunidad Hispana LGTB. Miembro del Comité Asesor del Proyecto Planeta Paz Sectores Sociales Populares por la Paz de Colombia. Coordinador de la Asociación Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Gays Lesbianas Bisexuales y Transexuales de Políticas y Estrategias de visibilidad masiva. En el mes de mayo de 1997 obtuvo el reconocimiento a la Excelencia Académica como Docente en la Universidad Manuel Beltrán. Fue director del departamento de Derechos Humanos y Asuntos Legales de la Liga Colombiana de Lucha Contra El Sida. Fue miembro de la Comisión redactora del decreto 1543 de 1997 reglamentario de vih y sida.