In independent Timor-Leste, debates about masculinity, faith, and power shape democracy and the sense of belonging.
Natalino Ornai Guterres co-founded the youth group Hatutan and has been one of the central voices of the LGBTIQA+ movement and the Pride organization in the country since 2017. In an interview conducted by Julia Scharinger, Natalino reflects on Pride as a space that challenges militarized perceptions of heroism and redefines freedom. The movement has been able to build impressive broad support for Pride in a short period of time.
"When we organized the first march in June 2017, I had the same feeling as in 1999 before the referendum: a sense of hope mixed with fear. We reached out to then Prime Minister Rui de Araujo for a statement of support and emphasized that independence must mean freedom for everyone."
For us, Pride was never an imported concept.
It was about completing the struggle; fighting for acceptance and equality through solidarity, dialogue and policy instead of guns.
The growing support was accompanied by strong resistance and culminated in a massive backlash in 2024. How is the movement responding to these challenges, and what strategic responses is it developing?
The interview Completing the Struggle: Pride, Power, and Belonging was published in issue 2/2025, “Männlichkeiten und Demokratisierung” of our online magazine südostasien.
