What We Do

CAISO is a feminist civil society organisation committed to ensuring wholeness, justice and inclusion for T&T’s LGBTQI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex) communities, by developing analysis, alliances, and advocacy. CAISO is a registered non-profit organisation in Trinidad and Tobago.

Founded in June 2009 as Coalition Advocating for the Inclusion of Sexual Orientation, CAISO changed its name in 2016 to CAISO: Sex and Gender Justice, to align closer with the growth in our areas of focus, namely wholeness, justice, and inclusion.

For over a decade, CAISO has offered the public a consistent voice and face for LGBTQI+ issues and human rights, shifting the needle measurably on how the country imagines, understands, and talks about sex and gender diversity and sexual justice. CAISO has successfully built alliances and worked collaboratively to build capacity and resilience, make interventions, and deliver justice.

CAISO’s work is guided by eight core values (affirmed and defined through Strategic Visioning as a team in 2021) that underpin how our work is designed, implemented, reported, and sustained: Wholeness, Justice, Imagination, Inclusion, Empowerment, Community, Accountability, and Feminism. These are the concepts we use to approach change making and transformation in our communities and systems.  

Since 2011, CAISO has focused attention on the Equal Opportunity Act and campaigned for legislative amendments to add three (age, health, LGBTQI+ status) Equal Opportunity protections. This continued advocacy led to CAISO developing a model LGBTQI+ Workplace Policy launched in 2021 targeting the private sector, small businesses, and civil society organisations who want to create an enabling working environment for all. CAISO offers training workshop packages to support implementing the policy and gender and sexuality sensitivity for various kinds of workplaces and organisations.

CAISO is the lead convener of the Alliance for Justice and Diversity (AJD), which is a social justice coalition of LGBTQI+ organisations. Through this coalition, CAISO led the creation of two shared LGBTQI+ Policy Agendas (in 2015 and 2020), which drive our advocacy work. CAISO was a lead partner of the successful Human Rights Project in partnership with AJD and the UWI IGDS (2017-2021) – “A Sexual Culture of Justice” which created important local and regional research and transformative approaches to ending GBV and LGBTQI+ discrimination. The AJD continues to convene and support Policy Agenda advocacy and is working towards a 2025 Policy Agenda.

CAISO is fueled by creativity and is a programme partner of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. Through this partnership, CAISO has organised an annual festival event that celebrates Caribbean LGBTQI+ writers and writing (in 2017 as Lit On Fleek and in 2018 and 2019 as BackChat). CAISO also partnered with Bocas to host and produce “The Treachery in Every Poem – Celebration of Colin Robinson’s Poetry” in 2020. This work of using creative imagination remains at the centre of our work to transform harmful cultural norms and to create spaces for LGBTQI+ visibility and creativity.

In 2022, CAISO featured our first LGBTQI+ art showcase with 6 artists during the Hard Head Award Ceremony and End of Year Celebration on Human Rights Day. This event continues as an Annual Art Exhibition featuring LGBTQI+ artists – in 2023 with the theme – Empowerment, Resistance, Defiance – and a 3 Day Art Exhibition featuring 9 artists.  

Since 2020, CAISO has offered service provision and strategic litigation work through the programme Wholeness & Justice, (smaller scope from May to Oct 2020, and full launch in Dec 2020). The programme provides legal and psychosocial support services for LGBTQI+ people living in Trinidad & Tobago who experience human rights violations – and expands access to wholeness, justice, and social services. Key insights and analysis from over two years of providing services offer vital evidence-based research for our advocacy. The Programme also produces educational materials and resource guides and offers regular capacity-building workshops for service providers and community members.

CAISO has developed signature intersectional projects, namely the Sign Together Project – that trains LGBTQI+ people and service providers in Trinidad & Tobago Sign Language, offers support for Deaf LGBTQI+ leaders, and provides LGBTQI+ sensitivity and deaf culture training for sign interpreters and service providers. Sign Together successfully trained partcipants in 2022 up to level three and continued in 2023 up to level five.

In June 2021, CAISO launched a Caribbean Responsive Grant Mechanism for Caribbean LGBTQI+ organisations (in partnership with Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice). The methodology and review process for the Responsive Grant Mechanism was co-created by CAISO, Astraea, and a regional committee. 

CAISO’s growth and expansion since 2020 reflect a dedicated team including a working board of directors, staff, consultants, and volunteers who are fierce and defiant in justice work and activism. The development of our 2022 to 2025 Strategic Plan builds upon past legacies yet also charts new ground for us to change and evolve. Our areas of work are designed and implemented to achieve our mission, reflect our vision and core values, and are structured around three main thematic areas:

• Wholeness: development of projects and approaches that contribute to the building of coalitions and alliances for the advancement of human rights and social justice.

• Justice: advancing both the institutional framework for LGBTQI+ justice and the opportunities for redress and legal support for persons whose human rights have been infringed because of their sexual orientation, sex/gender identity or expression.

• Inclusion: advancing a human rights and social justice approach to inclusion for LGBTQI+ people living in Trinidad and Tobago (and the wider Caribbean).