The leader of a prominent LGBTQ organization in Haiti has died.
Kouraj member Geraldine Clair Museau tells The Associated Press that Charlot Jeudy’s body was found at his home on Monday. It’s not immediately clear how he died and police didn’t return calls for comment.
Jeudy has spoken out against homophobia and was forced to cancel a festival celebrating the Afro-Caribbean LGBTQ community in 2016 because of numerous threats of violence.
Haiti’s LGBTQ community remains mostly underground because of social stigma, although there are no laws criminalizing homosexual relations as there are in several English-speaking Caribbean islands.
A 2015 human rights report on Haiti by the U.S. State Department said “local attitudes remained hostile to outward” LGBTQ identification and expression, especially in the capital.(The Associated Press)
