Creating Space: Common issues, lessons learnt and ways forward for people involved in the development of LGBTI organisations

W. Banks, B. Langen, T. Johnston

To get a better understanding of the issues that people who are involved in LGBTI organisations consider to be the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to the LGBTI sector, a web survey was initiated in September 2011. The ideas and insights gathered in that survey served as a starting point for a workshop in Amsterdam, where they were presented and where people could engage with them as a starting point for conversations. The central question of the web survey was: What are the key issues in the organisational development of LGBTI organisations? In the first article by Bram Langen you will find some background information on the results of the web survey that was launched at the start of this process. In the second article Warren Banks focuses on different forms of organising, change, phases and the resourcing of LGBTI organisations. Karen Kraan discusses the central theme of LGBTI leadership within organisations in the third article, while in the fourth Jan Bruinsma explores the meaning of identity and in-group and out-group dynamics. Wanja Muguongo and Happy Mwende Kinyili deal with cooperation and competition within the movement in the fifth article, while Gisela Dütting discusses the position of LGBTI organising entities in a broader movement for social change in the sixth. In the final article, Juan Cruz Diez Beltrán deals with hostility and the external environment. The appendix presents the cartoons that Auke Herrema created during the workshop in Amsterdam.