Lobby makes new appointment
The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby has appointed Sen Raj the new policy and development coordinator to replace Ghassan Kassisieh.
Raj comes from a strong background of human rights advocacy work with Amnesty International. He has devoted himself to refugee work and has campaigned for international LGBTI rights and the introduction of an Australian human rights act.
Raj currently co-chairs Amnesty International’s Diversity Steering Committee and was involved with the This Is Oz project.
“I’ve always been passionate about LGBTI issues in activism,” Raj told Sydney Star Observer. “I’ve always been frustrated by the lack of social justice and equality for members of the community, so I really wanted to get involved with policy and advocacy work in this area.
“Working with Amnesty, I got a lot of skills liaising with politicians, building community networks, consulting with various groups of people. Those kinds of interpersonal skills will be really useful for my work given that a lot of their [GLRL] work and a lot of their policy is based on consultation with the broader community.”
Still to be briefed, Raj has not yet had time to formulate new strategies, but he is keen to continue making progress on same-sex adoption, anti-discrimination provisions and civil marriage. He will also work to finalise the GLRL’s public education campaign on the federal same-sex entitlements reforms.
