We are excited to announce that the GATE family is expanding. Levan Berianidze is joining us as our new Gender Movement Program Officer.
Levan Berianidze is an activist from Georgia, with local and international experience in community organizing and Human Rights litigation. They’ll be guiding GATE towards the next steps, implementing its new Gender Movement Program.
They can be reached at lberianidze@gate.ngo. We’re inspired by their commitment towards achieving justice for all trans people, and we invite you to join us in welcoming them to our team!
Levan Berianidze (they/them/theirs) is a queer feminist activist from the Republic of Georgia. They are a graduate of the Social Justice and Human Rights MA program at Arizona State University and the Gender Studies MA program at Central European University.
Levan has vast experience in LGBTQI and feminist movements in the Eurasia region, which spans over nine years. As an executive director at Equality Movement, Levan managed to evolve the organization into the largest and the most influential LGBTQI organization in the Caucasian region over a period of four years. As part of their activism, Levan has won strategic cases in the European Court of Human Rights and the Georgian Constitutional Court against the Georgian government for violating the public assembly rights of the LGBTQI community and for discriminatory laws against the LGBTQI community; Levan has organized the largest and the first-ever LGBTQI public demonstrations (IDAHOT) in Tbilisi.
After the last homophobic attack on their partner, Levan, and three transgender women, Levan organized an international campaign with HRC and AllOut and pushed the Georgian government to establish a human rights department within the police forces. Moreover, being aware and critical of the challenges caused by NGO-ization of activism, in collaboration with activist friends, Levan started organizing a series of queer events – HOROOM – which has opened up pathways to forming an independent, non-formal, and nonhierarchical queer community in Georgia. With up to 1000 attendees per event, the party series has become one of the most important safe spaces for mobilization, education, and empowerment of the LGBTQI community in Georgia.