Georges Azzi


Georges Azzi is the co-founder of Helem, a Lebanese non-profit organisation working on improving the legal and social status of LGBT people, and is the executive director of the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality.

Early life and education

Azzi grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, in a conservative Christian family, during a civil war which divided Beirut between the East and the West. He moved to Paris in 2000, where he earned a degree in engineering, multimedia, and communications and became involved in LGBTQ activism. As a gay man who had grown up in Lebanon, he wanted to set up a centre in Beirut similar to Paris's LGBTQ Centre, to give LGBTQ people opportunities he had lacked. He co-founded Helem in 2004.

Career

Azzi is an openly gay activist in the MENA region and has been described as "a prominent activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights" by the Lebanese Daily Star. On May 14, 2018, Azzi won OutRight Action International's Felipa de Souza Award for his work with The Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality.