Albania’s Pioneering LGBT Activist: ‘We Should Not Be Second-Class Citizens’

Last week, the Stockholm-based international human rights organization Civil Rights Defenders awarded her the prestigious prize of civil rights defender for her work to bring change to the community in her country, alongside Uganda's Frank Mugisha.

The two have been named "two of the world's most courageous LGBTI+ activists and human rights defenders", working in environments where "homophobia is widespread".

Karaj says she did not expect the award. It caught her by surprise.

"The award was actually unexpected because Civil Rights Defenders had been nominating me for three or four years, and when they nominated me again, I never thought I would have a chance, because it is a global competition," she told BIRN in an interview.

"There are human rights activists from all over the world, and we know that there are places where the reality is much more difficult [than Albania]," she adds.

She says the award will serve as a great motivation for her, although, "when we do activism, we never think about this part of evaluation from outside.

"At least for me personally, activism has not been a job; it's been a necessity."

LGBT activists gather in Tirana for Pride Parade in 2021. Photo: BIRN

'Doing something that was bigger than me'

Albania's parliament decriminalised homosexuality in 1995, but the LGBT community was not part of Albania's social or political discourse until lately. Hate speech, discrimination and homophobia remained present.

Karaj, one of the first activists to fight for LGBT rights, became a public figure in the country. It all started when she met an American lesbian couple, and created a Facebook group, "Alliance against Discrimination - straight and gay", which...