Moderator: Dr Carla Maria Reale Postdoctoral researcher – University of Genova, Member at Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies – University of Trento

Biography:

Carla Maria Reale holds a PhD in Comparative Public Law. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Genoa and a member of the Board of the Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Trento. Her research, which is strongly interdisciplinary, focuses on understanding how law can respond to the challenges posed by the materiality of bodies and the complexity of identities, within the prism of the principle of equality. They are a transfeminist activist and a cultural organizer.

Marc Angel Member of the European Parliament, Vice-President of the European Parliament

Biography:

• Born in Luxembourg, March 12th 1963
• Primary and secondary education in Luxembourg
• University of Vienna Austria: Diploma as a Translator for German, French, English (Mag. Phil.)
• Economic University of Vienna: Diploma in Tourism-economy

Professional activities:

• Teacher at the Luxembourgish hotel and tourism management school 1990-2004
• Member of Luxembourg City Council 1994-2020
• Member of Luxembourg Parliament 2004-2019
• Chairman of the Committee for Foreign, European Affairs, International Development, Immigration and Asylum
• Member of the Committee on Gender Issues
• Member of the Health Committee
• Member of the Economic Affairs Committee
• Member of the Institutional Affairs Committee
• Treasurer of NATO Parliamentary Assembly
• President of the Luxembourg Delegation to COSAC
• President of the Luxembourg Delegation to BENELUX Parliament
• Member of the European Parliament since 2019

• Vice-President of the European Parliament since 2023

Member

• Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL)
• Committee on Petitions (PETI)
• Co-President of the LGBTI Intergroup
• Delegation to the EU-Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee (D-CL)
• Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (DLAT)

Substitute

• Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON)
• Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO)
• Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO)
• Delegation for relations with the People’s Republic of China (D-CN)

Honorary Consul of the Republic of Cap Verde in Luxembourg

UNAIDS Red Ribbon Leader for the 10-10-10 Social Enabler Target

President of the LCTO Luxembourg City Tourist Office

Co-founder of STOP AIDS NOW a.s.b.l (Luxembourg)

Erika Castellanos Executive Director at Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE)

Biography:

Erika Castellanos, Executive Director of Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE), is a passionate advocate for trans and gender diverse rights and equality globally. Erika brings to her role a wealth of experience in activism, community organizing, and policy advocacy. With a background in social work and human rights, she has dedicated her career to amplifying the voices of trans and gender diverse communities and driving systemic change. Her leadership of GATE is rooted in her own experiences as an indigenous trans woman of Mayan descent, born in Belize with lived expertise as a migrant, sex worker, person living with HIV and incarcerated person. Under her leadership, GATE has been at the forefront of advancing trans rights internationally, securing vital resources for our communities worldwide, and working tirelessly to promote legal recognition, access to healthcare, and protection from violence and discrimination. Her focus remains on driving innovation and commitment to advancing the global trans movement, building the capacity and resources of trans-led organizations at all levels to foster tangible progress toward equality and justice.

Evgenia Giakoumopoulou Head of the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) Unit of the Council of Europe (CoE)

Biography:

Evgenia Giakoumopoulou is  the Head of the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) Unit of the Council of Europe (CoE). She was previously the Head of the CoE Office in Montenegro, and has been working with European Institutions and INGOs for over 10 years, focusing on SOGIESC, as well as on anti-trafficking, migration and asylum, and torture prevention. Convinced of the need to bridge the gap between grassroots movements and international organisations, Evgenia has cofounded the NGO ACCESS in 2015 and the NPM Observatory in 2016, and has been actively engaged with the LGBTIQ+ and feminist movements in France, Greece and at the pan-European level, notably in the Board of the Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community (EL*C).

Pierre Karleskind Member of the European Parliament, Renew Europe

Biography:

Pierre Karleskind is a French oceanographer elected in the European Parliament in 2019. As vice president of the LGBTi intergroup, he initiated several landmark resolutions declaring the European Union as an LGBTQ freedom zone and calling for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality. During his mandate, he also waged a fight to suspend funding to the Polish LGBT-free zones.

Kim van Sparrentak Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA & LGBTI-Intergroup of the European Parliament

Biography:

Kim van Sparrentak is a Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Greens. She is a member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee where she works on digital rights and human rights protection in Artificial Intelligence as well as on greening the EU single market. Within the committee of Employment and Social Affairs she works on protecting workers’ rights in the digital age and affordable housing and energy poverty. Kim is the co-chair of the LGBTI-Intergroup of the European Parliament.

Dragana Todorović Co-Founder and Executive Director of the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community (EL*C)

Biography:

Dragana Todorović is one of the founders and the Executive Director of EL*C – the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community. This intersectional feminist lesbian network, comprising over 150 lesbian organizations and several thousand LBTI individuals from across Europe and Central Asia, focuses on bringing visibility to lesbians in all their diversity. It focuses in strengthening their participation in decision making spheres, and increasing their access to human rights, social justice, economic justice and wellbeing, through movement building, networking, advocacy and policy, humanitarian aid, visibility and public campaigning, research and grant-making.

Mélanie Vogel French Senator, Co-chair of the European Greens

Biography:

Mélanie Vogel has been the co-chair of the European Green Party since June 2022.  She is a French politician of Europe Ecologie Les Verts who has been serving as a member of the French Senate since 2021, representing the constituency of French citizens living abroad.

She mostly works on social justice, democracy and fundamental rights. She’s very committed to LGBTI issues, and is the only openly LGBTI Senator.

She was one of the initiators of the bill enshrining abortion in the French Constitution.