Kolakowski’s stop in Paris was one of three cities she toured this month on the State Department-sponsored trip to speak to groups about LGBT rights.
The June 16-19 visit, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, started in Bordeaux, where Kolakowski attended the city’s Pride event and spoke about her experiences as a transgender woman personally and professionally, and about United States’ LGBT history as a guest of the U.S. Embassy in France.
She met with a judicial group in Bordeaux as part of a cultural exchange visit.
In Toulouse, she visited at Espace des Diversites, a diversity center, where she met with Nicole Miquel Belaud, the mayor’s deputy in charge of diversity. She also spoke at a regional governmental center, the Conseil Départemental de la Haute-Garonne, and gave a newspaper interview.
In addition to the aforementioned plaza ceremony in Paris. Kolakowski also met with staff and youth at Le Refuge Paris, an organization that arranges independent housing for young people who’ve been thrown out of their homes, some of whom are refugees.
In an email interview with the B.A.R., Kolakowski, 57, wrote that she talked about how, in many nations, including the U.S., acceptance of LGBT people and rights varies throughout the country and that there were many similarities between LGBT French people and American queer people.
“Many local governments supported the work of eliminating discrimination of many types, and there are pockets of resistance,” Kolakowski wrote.
“My biggest takeaway is that LGBTQ+ people in France are a lot like they are in the U.S., and in other places that I have visited – Canada, Ireland, and the U.K,” she added.
Kolakowski is the wife of Bay Area Reporter news editor Cynthia Laird.
Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp: 415-517-7239, or Skype: heather.cassell or oitwnews@gmail.com.
