Graeme Reid is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and serves as the U.N. Independent Expert on Protection Against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). An anthropologist from South Africa, Reid is also a Research Scholar and Lecturer at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. As a U.N. Independent Expert, Reid is responsible for assessing the implementation of international human rights law, raising awareness, and engaging in dialogue with all relevant stakeholders, among other duties. Reid has written and published widely on the topics of gender, sexuality, LGBTQ+ issues, and HIV/AIDS. From 2011 to 2023, he served as Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. Reid was previously a Lecturer in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and in Anthropology at Yale University. From 1997 to 2001, he served as founder and director of The Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand. Reid has published two books and contributed to numerous others. He co-directed the documentary Dark and Lovely, Soft and Free (2000).
