Meet Colin Stewart

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Colin Stewart. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Colin, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I’m a Christian, though not a Trump-supporting evangelical Christian.  I tend to be characterized as a progressive Christian, which lately seems to be something of a rare breed. That’s where I find my purpose. As a Christian, I believe that, among other things, my purpose is to love my neighbor as myself, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. Those beliefs have led me to the work I’m currently doing.

Back when I was a young man, I decided on a career in journalism because that would allow me to combine my interest in social change and my love of language.

As a journalist, I have reported over the years on divisive issues ranging from school busing to plastic surgery. My beat changed from time to time in concert with the changing interests of editors and readers at the different newspapers where I worked.

After I retired from paid journalism, I remained a journalist and could focus my work more directly on striving for justice, respect and dignity for people who are shunned, disrespected and unjustly imprisoned.   That was possible by working as a journalist at a non-profit organization instead of at a for-profit newspaper.

 That arrangement came about after a gay Episcopal priest invited my wife and me to help raise money to allow LGBTQ rights activists from nations with anti-homosexuality laws to come to the United States to address the International AIDS Conference in 2012. The message that they came to deliver was that AIDS cannot be defeated so long as anti-homosexuality laws exist that classify gay and other HIV-positive people as criminals, which excludes them from effective health care.

As I got to know and like those activists, working with them was a straightforward way to  love my neighbor as myself, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

LGBTQ rights activists and I have become teammates as they continue their activism and add new work as journalists. Over the years, I have relied on them to set the direction of our coverage and to indicate how they and I can best serve their local LGBTQ communities.

This setup started during the AIDS conference of 2012, I got to know many LGBTQ rights activists and decided to use my talents as a journalist to help them spread their message. The first step was founding the Erasing 76 Crimes blog (76crimes.com), which reported on the human toll of then 76 countries’ anti-gay laws and the struggle to repeal them. The number of such countries has now dropped to 64 and the former blog is now a full news site, running in partnership with the African Human Rights Media Network and two affiliated sites, RightsAfrica.com and 76crimesFR.com.

At the initiative of LGBTQ rights activists, we have launched two projects that do important work on behalf of disrespected and criminalized LGBTQ people. Those initiatives are Qtalk, a free, confidential online counseling app for LGBTQ Nigerians, and Project Not Alone, which publishes news articles to raise money to feed and free imprisoned victims of African homophobia. So far, Project Not Alone has won early release for 46 innocent people who have run afoul of anti-homosexuality laws in Cameroon and Nigeria.

We depend on readers’ donations to support the work of LGBTQ advocacy journalism.

We have recently completed the 2024 work of Project Not Alone, which fed and set free five gay men in Nigeria and Cameroon and five lesbians in Cameroon. In preparation for 2025, Cameroon reporter Steeves Winner will visit prisons to see who will qualify for help from Project Not Alone. Only prisoners who have been accused of violating nothing other than anti-homosexuality laws can qualify for our help.  If you want to be notified as a potential donor once we know which prisoners qualify and what help they need, please send your name and email address to info@76crimes.com.

Qtalk currently has about 2,500 users. We depend on donations to keep that app updated and to help pay the expenses of our volunteer counsellors,

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

These three qualities have been important in my work: 

Patience. I tend to be a patient man. I don’t know how that quality can be developed.

Support from family. I am loved, accepted, re-energized and helped to relax.  Without that, I could not go on. I would burn out.

Focus on what readers need and want.  As a journalist, that’s my touchstone again and again. It helps me decide multiple questions every day and helps to keep me from getting distracted and seduced into other approaches and tendencies, such as doing what we always done, what’s stylish, what’s quick and easy, etc.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Maintaining good work/life balance is what usually keeps me from being overwhelmed and always helps me recover when I am overwhelmed.

When the pressure or the anger or the disappointment gets too great,  I can turn away from work and spend time with family, or playing, or on vacation, or just watching TV. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://76crimes.com
• Instagram: @erasing76crimes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Erasing76Crimes/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinstewart1/
• Twitter: @76Crimes
• Other: Donations for LGBTQ rights advocacy journalism: bit.ly/LGBTnews
  Donations for innocent LGBTQ prisoners: bit.ly/SPFprisoners
  Donations to support Qtalk: bit.ly/SPFqtalk
  Subscribe to Erasing 76 Crimes: 76crimes.com/subscribe-to-erasing-76-crimes
  Subscribe to 76Crimes en français: Near the top right of 76crimesFR.com
  Subscribe to RightsAfrica: rightsafrica.com/subscribe-to-rightsafrica-com/

Image Credits

Colin Stewart, Mike Daemon, Steeves Winner, Amsterdam Pride Walk