David Hunt:

Harvard University — the renowned Ivy League school on the banks of the Charles River outside of Boston — has dominated higher education in the United States for nearly 400 years, since its founding in 1636. Among its alumni Harvard boasts eight U.S. presidents, over 150 Nobel laureates, 46 Olympic gold medalists and 10 Academy Award winners.

But it’s only in the last 150 years or so that the college has been what American conservatives would call, “woke.”

The university reformed its curriculum in the late 19th century, moving away from its Puritan roots, introducing more elective courses and emphasizing scientific and modern subjects. 

The first Black student earned a degree in 1870, women were officially admitted as students during Second World War and the first openly gay professor came out in 1982.

Another milestone in the school’s long history of social progress came just a year ago, in May 2024, when the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights — a think tank in the Harvard Kennedy School — launched the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program. 

While Harvard battles the Trump administration in court to protect diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campus, the Carr-Ryan Center has kept its eyes on the prize, focusing on training and leadership development, research, public engagement, and partnerships, all aligned to advance the human rights of LGBTQ people, especially in parts of the world where those rights are threatened, disappearing or nonexistent.

I’m David Hunt. I sat down with Diego Garcia Blum, director of the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Carr-Ryan Center to discuss the program’s accomplishments over its first year. The goal, he told me, is to empower this and the next generation of LGBTQ activists; to give them the benefits of a Harvard education without the sticker shock of Harvard tuition.

Diego Garcia Blum:

The school has been for many decades now developing curriculum on effective advocacy, policy. And it didn't have a focus on LGBTQ rights or the global LGBTQ landscape, and it was ripe for that. We had professors who had been working in the intersection of all the international bodies, including the UN, the Association of American States, all of the international bodies where LGBTQ activists were working. But no specific focus on LGBTQ work. And then also we had so much incredible content on advocacy and community organizing, which is the core and the root of how this work gets done, gets done around the world that when I came to Harvard as a student, realized activists all over the world would benefit so, so much from being able to have access to this. And so I came in really trying to understand a couple of things as a student, actually. First, what can we learn from a research standpoint of where change has happened before and make frameworks, lessons, academic work out of that so that other activists don't have to reinvent the wheel every time, but rather have the takeaways from that work. And second, how can we look at the existing community organizing and leadership work and tailor that for activists around the world so that they have access to it without having to pay a hundred thousand dollars a year at Harvard? And so that was the premise of the program. We brought together incredible faculty at the university to say, would you be willing to work with us to make this accessible to activists all over the world where they are? And they said, yes. And we have over 33 affiliated faculty from all over the university that come together for our training programs now that have now over 80 participants in, in the year that we've been running and also in the pilot that we did before this.

David Hunt:

In addition to this intensive six-month advocacy and leadership program, the Carr-Ryan Center has its online Changemakers Network, a global community of 2,000 LGBTQ activists, who participate in regular virtual training sessions on a wide range of topics. 

Diego Garcia Blum:

When we were looking at what we could offer, we knew the really impactful kind of learning is being able to be in a space where you hear from others, where you're able to constantly interact with activists around the world. And so we wanted to create a community of learning where we could offer around twice or three times a month workshops that people could come together and around a specific topic learn and share. And so we created the global LGBTQI+ Changemakers Network. And this really is a community of learning where we, we do in a very constant basis, trainings and, and informational content that people come together to learn. But also, not only that, it it goes beyond just the learning too. When we need some kind of research, to interview some, some, some, some folks around the world for research or, or maybe even if they have internships and we have some money for some Harvard students to intern somewhere. And so it's a, it's a community of, of, of folks working in the space that we rely on for research, for, for trainings, for, for learning for our students. And so it's around now 2,000 activists in 170 countries.

David Hunt:

The Carr-Ryan Center has a big online presence, producing podcasts, webinars and virtual training programs attended by hundreds — sometimes thousands — of people. But it also believes in the effectiveness of face-to-face learning and discovery. Its International LGBTQI+ Activism Summit, held on campus in October 2024, brought together activists from 20 countries for an immersive learning experience. Participants worked with Harvard faculty to explore proven strategies for countering the myths used to oppress and stigmatize LGBTQ people around the world.

Diego Garcia Blum:

My main research for me is I research the myths, misunderstandings and misconceptions of LGBTQ people, people around the world. I always tell folks, make it really easy for people to understand. There is diversity, just like there're short people, tall people, and everything in between. Eye color differences, race, et cetera. There's diversity in sexual orientation, and then there's like, and there's diversity in gender identity. And, and of course also in, in biological sex, there's intersex folks who physically also don't, don't fall neatly between male and female. And, and also in, in romantic spectrum too, just make it easy to understand Its diversity in, in, in a different way, as, as we know it's in, in other aspects. But what these myths have tried to do all over the world is basically to say three things that somehow being LGBTQ is not normal. And that comes in a lot of flavors, that it's some kind of demonic possession, that it's a choice that just one day, somebody just being a contrarian tried to do this. And of course, those are all lies, or that people are being influenced by some ideology, which is the new thing today. The second thing is that it could, that, the second myth in the lie is that it can be fixed, and of course it can't be fixed, but that makes good people, good moral people believe that discrimination is the right thing to do, that these torture therapies are the right thing to do, right. When they have these misconceptions on that. And then the third is that somehow being LGBTQ is detrimental to society, even though we've always been here, we've been here since the beginning. But people try to say, oh, if you, if you accept LGBTQ people, that's gonna be the end of the modern marriages, and that's gonna be the end of modern society. Which of course, we have research now to show us that isn't true. And so really these three categories of myths that come in, in a lot of flavors have been used to justify discrimination and to convince good people around the world that discrimination is the right thing to do. And so I also work very closely with all the activists on understanding the myths in their communities and how to fight them effectively. 

David Hunt:
 
When I spoke with him, Blum had just returned from a trip to South America, where he conducted face-to-face training programs for scores of activists who hadn’t been able to attend the summit in the United States. It was a chance for people on the front lines of social change to network and learn from Harvard research and from each other.

Diego Garcia Blum:

I was just in Rio and, and one of the things that we did was we brought together leaders after an event. And one of the things that shocked me a little bit was the, the convening I did on my trip was the first time many of these local leaders were meeting for the first time. And these were not only local, but people working in this space for a long time internationally at the UN. And, and they're like, yeah, we don't have many opportunities or forums to come together to discuss the work or our stories. And so one of the benefits and kind of the value added that our program has is being able to say, Hey, let's bring the leaders together that are working in this space, but usually not interacting with each other and let's, let's convene, know each other. The social is just as important as movement in social movement. And, and in sharing our stories, we create also these new pathways to collaboration between them.

David Hunt:

You’re listening to This Way Out: The International LGBTQ Radio Magazine. I’m David Hunt, continuing my conversation with Diego Garcia Blum, director of the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Carr-Ryan Center at Harvard. Blum explained the leadership framework underlying much of the program’s work, a framework based on the power of storytelling.

Diego Garcia Blum:

One of the main trainings that we lean on from the Kennedy School is Marshall Ganz's public narrative and community organizing work. And a big foundation in Columbia invited us to get activists together to go over this, this training. And so I'll tell you the, the, the beauty of this training is it's about sharing our stories. And so the idea is that there is a three-part framework on how do we get people to have shared values into action. It's not enough that you may have a ton of people that believe in equality for LGBTQ people. That's not enough to get people into action. There is a leadership practice, and we call it public narrative, to be able to move people in, in, into action. And so that, that goes into three parts, it's the story of self. The story of self is why am I here? Why am I doing this work? And it's important to give people that story, to be able to root your leadership. The story of us is what brings us together? What are our shared values? And what are our challenges that we're facing together? And the story of now is, and what are we gonna do together now? And it's a, and it's a practice that we teach in workshops. And so for example, I, I go when I do this work, and I say, you know, I, I grew up as a gay immigrant in the United States, bullied in school, in an evangelical church that tried to put deep, deep shame in me. The bullying I experienced in school when I was in, in recess. And, and, and the, the kids would, would call me names, would send me to cry to the bathroom. And I had that deep shame that I lived with for so long that characterized my upbringing. And, and it led me to a, to a deep depression as an, as an adolescent. And the reason why I do this work is because I, I do not want kids to go through that again. And so, for example, when I tell my story, people understand, I know why he's does this work. He lived through, through, through that experience. And, and this is what motivates me. So, so we, we ask folks why are you here? And sometimes they haven't even articulated that. And they say, you know, one of the participants in, in one of the trainings that, that I did recently said, one day I was, I had a homophobic neighbor who one day just came up to me and hit me. And then we start going through the stories that moved people into action, and that's where you get people's their anchor. And then we say, you know, we, we've all experienced something like that. And so the challenge that we have now is how do we make a better world? And we can if we come together, if we, if we, if we learn to do effective advocacy. And so that's the story of us. The story of us is, I come with, with, with my experiences you come with, with yours, but we have a shared challenge now. And then, and then the story of now is, well, we have work to do, and what does that look like right now? And how do we move together into action?

David Hunt:

In all its work with activists around the world, the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program is committed to translating cutting-edge research into real-world action. The program supports nine LGBTQ research fellows working in areas such as feminist theory, organizational development, the rise of authoritarianism, and the Global Anti-Gender Movement. I asked Blum about the challenges of working in higher education — and particularly at Harvard — in the face of ongoing threats from the Trump administration.

Diego Garcia Blum:

We are not a DEI program in the sense of how a lot of people think of it. We are truly a research-based program. because studying and researching activism is also a very important academic project. But of course, Harvard is under attack. There are folks who will see the, this, this work that we're doing and, and, and, and also the, the, the other programs around Harvard and want to change that and how we teach who teaches it and trying to stifle that academic freedom.So I'm just very grateful that the university took a stand to be able to teach what it wants to be able to have academic freedom while being very strong under antisemitism task forces and, and and work. Because as we can see there, there's been kind of this, this entryway of using antisemitism as a way to attack everything in the university, including LGBTQ work, including racial justice work, including all this academic work revolving around this. And so it's a fraught time. It should raise alarm bells everywhere. I would say, you know, everyone stand with Harvard, stand with Harvard. We, we need your help. And, and, and and truly I, I do as, as an employee, as an alum, and I'm very proud of Harvard make not caving because gosh, this would've done such a waterfall effect everywhere else in, in higher education if Harvard had. But every day we wake up to terrible news, we ha the Kennedy School laid off a ton of people because of the budget cuts. Last week, I had to say bye to some of my favorite librarians and people I love. We had to fire thousands of researchers because grants that were terminated in the middle of a grant then all of a sudden the most important thing our students get banned from coming to school. And so it might look like we're doing great because we're standing up for ourselves, but actually we are in a middle of a very, very protracted and difficult fight here. So we do need constant support.

David Hunt:

I’d like to thank Diego Garcia Blum at Harvard’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights for speaking with me for this program. For This Way Out, I’m David Hunt.