DURHAM, N.H. -- Michael Lavers ’04, international editor for the Washington Blade, the oldest newspaper in the U.S. covering gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender news around the world, has been named the 2018 Donald M. Murray Visiting Journalist at the University of New Hampshire. Lavers will discuss covering LGBT rights abroad Tuesday, April 3 at 5 p.m.in MUB Theater I. The talk is free and open to the public.

Lavers will talk about his reporting on Cuba's LGBT rights movement within the context of the evolving status of relations between the U.S. and Cuba; his recent trip to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and its continued impact on the island's LGBT community; and what it’s like to cover the global LGBT rights movement during the Trump administration.

“The best part of my job,” said Lavers, “is the fact that I get to speak with activists in countries around the world who trust me to share their stories. The most challenging part of my job is the fact that I get to speak with activists in countries around the world who trust me to share their stories.”

Lavers has been a staff writer for the Washington Blade since 2012 and the newspaper’s international news editor since 2015. He has reported from the Deep South, the United Nations, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Israel, the West Bank and more than a dozen other countries and territories in Latin America and around the world. He has also appeared on Al Jazeera, BBC, Sirius XM, Telemundo and other English and Spanish-language media outlets to discuss LGBT-specific issues.

Lavers graduated from UNH with degrees in journalism and Spanish. He grew up in Manchester.

The Visiting Journalist program is sponsored by the UNH Journalism Program, the UNH English Department, the Telegraph of Nashua, and the McLean Contributionship.