On Monday, November 25, 2019, Charlot Jeudy was found dead in his home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, by a family member. Given the circumstances of his death, we have every reason to believe that Charlot was murdered. Indeed, we are aware that he had recently received a number of death threats because of his activism. We share in the community’s anger, and we are deeply saddened by his death.
In 2011, Charlot first reached out to Housing Works’ Haiti office to request assistance in the formation of Kouraj, the first out LGBTI Rights organization in Haiti. He did this knowing full well the hostility and discrimination he would face from many sectors of the community for creating a public organization. That hostility was not only from homophobic sectors, but also from members of the same community who did not countenance the idea of a queer organization that was openly confronting the status quo instead of working “amba chal” or behind the scenes. Housing Works was proud to provide Kouraj with its first grant, to serve for a time as its fiscal agent, and to provide it with on-going technical assistance and support that has continued up until today. At Charlot’s request, we partnered with Kouraj to sponsor the first public and official National Congress Against Homophobia in Haiti on May 17th, 2012. Every year since then, Housing Works and Kouraj have partnered, joined now by a host of other organizations in an annual public observance of the International Day Against Homophobia in Haiti. Most recently, Kouraj has been one of the community partners working with UNAIDS and Housing Works to establish a Human Rights Observatory that will monitor stigma and discrimination both inside of health care facilities and in public life.
Charlot has been an important leader in a collaborative effort to strengthen the LGBTI community’s visibility and activist capacity. He was a visionary who saw a day when queer people would be fully accepted in Haiti’s political and public spheres and would be able to transform decades of social exclusion to acceptance and full equality for LGBTI people. He never sought any personal gain, and never thought solely of the advancement of Kouraj. Indeed, he supported the development of rights organizations representing transgender people, lesbians, sex workers, and other stigmatized groups, on the theory that many voices would build a national movement that could bring about national transformation. In all that he did, he focused on the human dignity and worth of all PLHIV and LGBTI peoples in Haiti.
Housing Works will deeply miss our friend, ally and frontline collaborator, Charlot Jeudy. His “any means necessary” spirit is one that we honor and encourage others to replicate. As for our friends at Kouraj, over the years we have become family, and today we grieve with you. We offer our deepest condolences to his family of blood and heart, his nephew whom he loved deeply. Indeed, our condolences extend to all “Masisi”, all “Madivin”, all transgender and gender-variant people of Haiti, and all human rights defenders in Haiti. We realize that Charlot’s death is a significant loss to the nation of Haiti and its people, including the diaspora. Indeed, it is a loss to anyone who truly believes in human rights. May his name continue to resonate in our consciences as we continue in the fight of equality and the respect of human life and dignity.
May Charlot rest in power!
