Kimahli Powell

Kimahli Powell (44–45 years old)[1] is a Canadian LGBTQ activist and charity organization executive.[2] He served at the director level for numerous charities including: the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival, the YMCA, and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. In 2016, he became the executive director for the Rainbow Railroad, helping LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers escape countries that criminalize homosexuality, including the death penalty for being gay.[3]

Early life and education

Powell was born and raised in Canada by Jamaican-born parents.[4]

He has a Baccalaureate in Political Science from the University of Ottawa.[5]

Career

In 2009, Powell directed Darren Anthon’s play “Secrets of a Black Boy”, a series of monologues and set-pieces about issues of the black community.[6] The play was reprised in 2016.[7]

Powell has held director-level positions at the Inside Out Toronto LGBTQ Film and Video Festival and the YMCA. He worked as a major gifts officer at Dignitas International, a Toronto-based medical and research charity organization dedicated to improving access to lifesaving treatment and care for HIV, TB and related diseases in resource-limited settings. From approximately 2012 to 2016, he was the director of development and outreach at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network,[2] Canada's leading advocacy organization working on the legal and human rights issues raised by HIV and AIDS.

In November 2016, he started as the executive director of the Rainbow Railroad, a nonprofit organization that helps LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers escape life-threatening situations because of their gender identity and sexuality.[2] Rainbow Railroad is named in homage to the United States’ 1800s Underground Railroad to help escaping African-American slaves get to free states, Canada and Nova Scotia with the aid of sympathetic abolitionists and allies.[8] The clients are helped to “escape from state-enabled violence, murder or persecution in their home countries”,[2] usually from the Caribbean, Africa, and Middle East, and relocated to Europe or North America. As of 2019, seventy countries criminalize homosexuality, with eleven imposing a death penalty for being gay.[1] Rainbow Railroad’s chair of the board of directors Michael Battista stated Powell was an ideal fit being Jamaican and a gay man with “very strong fundraising and development experience, work in the LGBT community, and then international advocacy with the HIV/AIDS legal network”.[2] In 2017, reports of gay men being hunted and tortured in Chechnya compelled the group to seek funds and support to rescue the victims; Powell traveled to the area.[9]

In 2018, Powell was named to the Out100, honoring LGBTQ visionaries, for his work.[10] In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, sparking the start of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, Queerty named him one of the Pride50 “trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.[11][12]

In September 2019, Powell notes that U.S. LGBTQ refugee asylum cases are at a crisis level under Trump.[13] Cases can go for years with no progress, and bringing “one person to safety can cost thousands of dollars (due to transportation, paperwork, and outside-the-box routing), only to find a new set of challenges once they reach a border.”[13]

References
  1. Rinaldi, Robin (June 8, 2019). "Kimahli Powell conducts an underground railroad for the persecuted". www.queerty.com. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  2. "Rainbow Railroad hires Kimahli Powell as new executive director". Xtra. October 18, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  3. "Rainbow Railroad hires Kimahli Powell as new executive director". Xtra. October 18, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  4. "Meet the Canadian fearlessly fighting Chechnya's "gay purge"". www.nbcnews.com. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  5. "Kimahli Powell". ILGA. October 19, 2017. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  6. "Secrets of a Black Boy". Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  7. "Secrets of a Black Boy attempts to tell its creators' stories on their own terms: review | The Star". thestar.com. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  8. "Ticket to heaven: activists pluck LGBT people from danger". Reuters. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  9. "From Russia with hate: How Putin's anti-LGBT crackdown led to the persecution of gay men in Chechnya". Salon. May 1, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  10. "OUT100: 2018". www.out.com. November 14, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  11. Rinaldi, Robin (June 8, 2019). "Kimahli Powell conducts an underground railroad for the persecuted". www.queerty.com. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  12. "Queerty Pride50 2019 Honorees". Queerty. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  13. Artavia, David (September 9, 2019). "What's It Like as an Asylum Seeker Who Is LGBTQ Or Living With HIV?". HIV Plus. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
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