In May 2026, two Equals Board members, Nia Brathwaite and Nastassia Rambarran, along with Executive Director Rondell Trim, had the honour of travelling to Kingston, Jamaica to participate in Stronger Together II, a landmark regional conference that brought the LGBTQ+ movement across North America and the Caribbean together under one roof.
Convened by CariFLAGS, ILGA-NAC, and ECADE, the three-day gathering (May 21 to 23) united over fifty organisations from the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States under the theme “Solidarity, Strategy and Collective Action for LGBTQI Movements.” We are living through a moment of profound pressure on LGBTQ+ movements globally, with shrinking funding and a growing anti-rights movement. Stronger Together II was designed with this context in mind, and rather than simply exchanging information, the conference took a structured, research-informed approach, drawing on lived experience, implementation lessons, and expert insights to help participants build a shared understanding of the landscape, and a shared commitment to changing it.
The agenda ranged from regional and international political trends to funding strategy, to the emotional and psychological realities of doing this work, and made space for trauma-informed healing alongside the more tactical sessions. The prominent message emerging from every session was that cross-movement solidarity is essential, and it confirmed our belief that no organisation or community can carry this work alone. We returned to Barbados energised, connected, and with a clearer sense of how Equals fits into the larger regional movement. Stronger Together confirmed that while the work ahead is significant, we are better equipped to face it together.
For more on Stronger Together II, visit ilganac.org/conferencecommunique and cariflags.org.
