Rainbow Railroad

Since its inception in 2006, Rainbow Railroad has transformed the lives of thousands of LGBTQ+ refugees. Whether that’s through emergency relocation or other forms of assistance, the global non-for-profit organisation has made it their mission to help vulnerable LGBTQ+ citizens from all corners of the world facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or sex characteristics by providing them with pathways to safety. “We do that work in the backdrop of 80 million displaced people around the world,” says Kimahli Powell, Executive Director at Rainbow Railroad - the latest recipient for the GAY TIMES Honour for International Community Trailblazer presented by Bud Light Seltzer. “70 countries have criminalised same-sex intimacy and those two crises intersecting means that there are more displaced LGBTQI+ people than ever before. So, we identify people at risk, we verify every case and try to identify pathways for support, then ultimately we pay for the cost to have them flee.”

GAY TIMES Honour for International Community Trailblazer presented by Bud Light Seltzer

Kimahli has served as the Executive Director since 2016 when Rainbow Railroad, he says, was a charitable, volunteer-led organisation. At the time, they had a clear “operational model” of how to evacuate vulnerable LGBTQ+