Queer rights and identities, including queer sexual and reproductive health and rights; HIV/AIDS; (sexual) health-related asylum seekers and refugee claimants; sex positivity; queer identities in Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe; indigenous conceptions of gender; access to justice; comparative / queering constitutional and human rights law.

Ryan is a queer, Mexican-Slovak lawyer and researcher who is enthusiastic about substantive human rights, queer issues and rights and improving sexual and reproductive health and rights at the community, national and international levels.

Prior to the Youth Coalition, he acted as an Assistant Director and Legal Research Fellow on access to justice issues for minority language communities in Quebec/Canada. He acted as an Associate Editor for the UN Global Survey on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, responsible for five Latin American country reports. He worked for the Embassy of Mexico in the United Kingdom in the areas of Human Rights, Education and Gender Affairs and submitted recommendations for the UK’s Third Universal Periodic Review.

Ryan completed a Masters in Laws at McGill University where he was a recipient of the Rathlyn Foundation Fellowship. His area of thesis research centred on the interrelationship between administrative law and constitutional law and the judiciary’s role in substantive rights review. Specifically, his thesis examined over 180 cases of asylum seekers appealing their immigration removal order on health/medical and/or sexuality grounds from the (England and Wales) First-tier and Upper Tier Tribunals.

Furthermore, Ryan strongly believes in community-level support and organisations. He co-implemented the first legal information clinic at Maison Plein Coeur, an organisation supporting individuals living with HIV/AIDS. He also is a board member of AIDS Community Care Montreal.

In his free time, Ryan loves to spend time with his friends and exploring new places - alone or with friends. He is passionate about queer art, cinema, history, literature and television. In addition, he enjoys Scandinavian culture and his favourite treat is cinnamon rolls. Lastly, although allergic, Ryan adores cats and dogs and his favourite animal is, and has been since a child, an ocelot.