Discover our executive team
Executive Director
Forbidden Colours NPO
Rémy Bonny
During my many researches and advocacy work in Eastern Europe, I started understanding the privileged position I was living as a Belgian LGBTIQ+ person. Too many LGBTIQ+ people still have to live in the closet in our European Union. Many of my friends in Poland and Hungary had suicide attempts when they were teenagers. Hearing their stories breaks my heart every time. My life’s work is making sure that the stories of the many LGBTIQ+ teenagers that lost their life will never be forgotten.
Being a representative of our diverse community is the biggest honour of my life. From rural villages in Georgia, Ukraine or Poland to the corridors of power in Brussels and Washington, our struggle for equality is what drives me day and night.
With Forbidden Colours, I am at the disposal of the European LGBTIQ+ communities. With making the LGBTIQ+ movement more self-sustainable all around Europe, we want LGBTIQ+ people to create their own path towards equality and success.
Outreach & Policy Officer
Forbidden Colours NPO
Vincent Reillon, PhD
Trained as a physicist specialised in iridescent colours, I learned a lot about rainbows. Yet, my coming out opened the doors of a new rainbow world. A safe space in which I healed from the guilt, the shame and the fear that growing gay in an cisheteronormative world had infused me with. It became obvious to me that I wanted to act and engage to make sure no LGBTIQ+ people would never have to go through that kind of trauma anymore.
Within Forbidden Colours, I bring my experience as a former researcher, analyst, and diplomat in EU policy to try and secure LGBTIQ+ people’s access to their human rights. A humongous challenge, even given the progress of the last 20 years. But a mission that I embrace with enthusiasm and determination.
Advocacy officer – Southern Europe
Forbidden Colours NPO
Séverine De Bruyn
Nowhere have I been welcomed so warmly as in the LGBTIQ+ community in Italy. It feels like home. Many women in the community are like family to me. Their stories taught me that we don’t have the same rights everywhere. The attacks from the anti-gender movements, the government, religion – to name just a few – are numerous.
I will continue to highlight this injustice as long as my friends and everyone else from the LGBTIQ+ community do not have the same rights as me in Belgium.
MEET OUR TRAINEES
GRADUATE STUDENT MARKETING & COMMUNICATION
Odisee University College, Brussels
Aycan Denizli
Growing up with religion and a place where people were not so open to the LGBTIQ+ community made me curious why the people around me would not accept them.
So, I decided to give it a go and join a community by listening to their stories and following them. During that period, I realized there was nothing different with people from this community and I even made some friends that were really open minded, and we ended up getting along very well with each other. Some of them were silently yearning for their freedom, and others had the courage to talk openly and told me there was nothing wrong with it. Life does not have to be that hard for those who want to be whoever they want, without any disguise they must put on daily to protect themselves from others, their looks, and bad sayings.
GRADUATE STUDENT MARKETING & COMMUNICATION
Odisee University College, Brussels
Alison Vandenplas
I was drawn to Forbidden Colours for my marketing internship because of its distinctive focus on advocating for LGBTIQ+ rights as a non-profit organization. Their mission deeply resonates with me, and I am eager to contribute my marketing skills to further their cause. This opportunity allows me to merge my passion for marketing with my commitment, making it an ideal fit for my internship experience. Additionally, I see this as a prime opportunity not only to contribute to their cause but also to enhance and refine my marketing skills in a meaningful context.
