Social media campaign aims to highlight persecution of LGBTQ people
To spread awareness around how difficult — and sometimes even dangerous — coming out can be for LGBTQ people around the world, the nonprofit Rainbow Railroad is encouraging people to change their social media profile pictures to an anonymous avatar with the colors of the Pride flag.
Rainbow Railroad is an organization that helps persecuted LGBTQ individuals leave their home countries and settle in safer ones. The social media campaign launched Friday in honor of National Coming Out Day, a day that celebrates the LGBTQ community and their coming out stories.
The avatar doesn't have any facial features. That's deliberate. The organization hopes to symbolize the countless LGBTQ people around the world who cannot come out, according to a press release.
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The initiative is part of a larger campaign called #HelpOthersOut, which launched Tuesday and aims to raise awareness around the fact that LGBTQ people in several countries can't come out due to safety concerns.
You can download an anonymous avatar here. The organization also suggests adding a caption encouraging people to donate and including language about National Coming Out Day.
By the end of 2018, there were almost 71 million forcibly displaced people globally, according a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report.
"LGBTQI individuals are an extremely vulnerable section of that," said Winnie Luk, Rainbow Railroad's managing director.
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Rainbow Railroad helped bring 206 LGBTQ people to safety in 2017, according to their 2017 annual report. One of them, Amin Dzhabrailov was tortured for being gay in Chechnya in 2017. He eventually fled to Canada with Rainbow Railroad's help.
A spokesperson for the campaign, Dzhabrailov explained in an email that he hopes it will inspire the world to be more understanding and accepting of people like himself.
In addition to the social media campaign, Rainbow Railroad hopes to raise $100,000, which will be used to help LGBTQ people find a safe haven in another country, Andrea Houston, Rainbow Railroad's communications and development officer, wrote in an email.
"We want this campaign to start conversations," Luk said.
Topics Activism Social Good
Siobhan was the Social Good reporter at Mashable, writing about everything from mental health to race to the climate crisis. Before diving into the world of journalism, she worked in global health — most notably, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique. Find her at @siobhanneela.
