Paul Amar, Associate Professor in the Global and International Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author of The Security Archipelago: 'Human Security' States, Sexuality Politics and the End of Neoliberalism (Duke University Press, 2012), which contrasts Brazil and Egypt through the lens of the politics of sexuality, social movements, and authoritarian state structures, Global South to the Rescue: Emergent Humanitarian Superpowers and Transnational Rescue Industries (Routledge, 2011), and Dispatches from the Arab Revolt (LeftWord Press, 2012), among other titles.

‌Rafael de la Dehesa, Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences of CUNY—College of Staten Island, and author of Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico and Brazil: Sexual Rights Movements in Emerging Democracies (2010).

 Kenyon Farrow, co-editor of Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out(2005), former Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice, currently on the Executive Committee of Connect 2 Protect New York, and the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at CUNY. 

 ‌Raquel (Lucas) Platero Méndez, founder and leader of the first LGBTQ student organization in Spain, RQTR, academic researcher at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, co-author of Herramientas para combatir el Bullying Homofóbico (Tools to combat homophobic bullying, 2007), and editor of Intersecciones: cuerpos y sexualidades en la encrucijada (Intersections: bodies and sexualities at the crossroad, 2012).‌

;Graeme Reid, Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, and formerly a researcher at the Wits University Institute for Social and Economic Research and a lecturer in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies at Yale; his books include How To Be A Real Gay: Gay Identities in Small-Town South Africa (2013).‌

 Dean Spade, Associate Professor at Seattle University School of Law, author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of the Law (2011), and founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (www.srlp.org), a non-profit law collective that provides free legal services to transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people who are low-income and/or people of color.‌

‌Maurice Tomlinson, Lawyer and journalist, Tomlinson is one of Jamaica’s most high-profile LGBTI rights activists; building on his work on marginalized groups with AIDS-Free World, he is currently leading a coalition of human rights organizations in a legal challenge to Jamaica’s anti-sodomy laws through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

‌Ruth Vanita, Professor at the Liberal Arts Program at the University of Montana and founder and co-editor of Manushi: A Journal about Women and Society, India’s first nationwide feminist magazine (1978-91), whose books include Gandhi's Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture (2006), Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West (2005) and Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society (2001).