“Queer Development Cooperation Also and Always Means Promoting Democracy”

The conference “Protecting queer human rights against the global backlash – the responsibility of German development cooperation” on October 30, 2025, in Berlin was organized by Engagement Global Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

“No news is good news”, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, however, this type of “no news“ is now only rarely the case – at least if one is the executive director of the global LGBTIQ+ organization ILGA World. I therefore apologize right from the start: The next 20 minutes will be joyless at best – because the situation for many LGBTIQ+ people around the world is currently a catastrophe.

For many LGBTIQ+ people around the world is currently a catastrophe.

I would like to start with development cooperation in Germany. Then move on to the situation for LGBTIQ+ people and movements worldwide, before returning at the end to the consequences of Donald Trump’s assumption of office and the global political drift to the right.

Focus on Germany

Germany is a wealthy country, an influential country, and since the closure of USAID by the Trump administration it is also the country that provides the most ODA – or “official development assistance”, which means funds for development cooperation. Allow me the following aside: China is the country that gives the most financial support to countries in the Global South. Although its funding is not considered ODA, this nevertheless shows how other actors are filling the void left by the USA.

Back to Germany, an ODA champion, which is positive and something to be proud of – that is, if one is not queer. Because while Germany is one of the big names in the context of development and humanitarian assistance, it is by no means a leader among the states enabling LGBTIQ+ work in the Global South. Those are usually countries such as the USA and the Netherlands – but also the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Denmark – with Germany generally a poor second.

Germany does support some LGBTIQ+ work in the Global South, but at different magnitudes than the countries just mentioned. In fairness one should note that the German context makes it very hard to determine how much funding does in fact flow to LGBTIQ+ organizations. Other countries have designated LGBTIQ+ programs that often are, or were, invested with several million euros or dollars – but that is not the case in Germany.

Another major problem with German development cooperation concerns its general funding guidelines, which make it difficult or impossible to provide funds directly to civil society in the partner countries. As a result, LGBTIQ+ work by civil society and local human rights defenders is often supported indirectly by large development cooperation organizations such as political foundations, church organizations or other actors.

That is problematic because these intermediaries are often not part of the LGBTIQ+ movement. It also means that money falls by the wayside and major decisions about what and whom are funded, and how this funding takes place, are not made locally or by LGBTIQ+ actors themselves. From both a global and an LGBTIQ+ perspective, this is a problem because it keeps colonial structures and patterns in place, and therefore also hinders approaches that foster local empowerment and participation.

The German situation has not benefited significantly from either the “LGBTI Inclusion Strategy for Foreign Policy and Development Cooperation” of 2021 or the feminist development cooperation and feminist foreign policy under the coalition government from 2021 to 2024 – although the political will was definitely there. Those three strategies, however, did in fact bear fruit in other areas.

LGBTIQ+ Movements Worldwide

What is the situation for LGBTIQ+ people, LGBTIQ+ organizations, and LGBTIQ+ movements worldwide? What has been transformed in recent decades? What has changed in recent years? And what do we see today?

Let us start with the good news, or “no news” – finally! Viewed across an extended period of time, LGBTIQ+ movements in most regions of the world have achieved societal transformations of a type few other social movements have managed to do:

Fifty years ago in much of the world, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans and intersex people were considered morally or ethically debased; we were criminalized, pathologized and marginalized, and faced discrimination and violence in all aspects of our lives.

True, 50 years ago the German Basic Law (constitution) did state that “Human dignity shall be inviolable” and Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights read “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” – BUT that was not the everyday experience of most LGBTIQ+ people in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, in Germany or elsewhere. On looking back, one has to say that the situation has changed in many places.

Despite all the human rights violations that LGBTIQ+ people continue to suffer to this day, it is important to remember what we have achieved as a movement over the past 50 years, and to celebrate these successes!

When I started school in the 1980s, more than two thirds of the UN member states still criminalized consensual same-sex relations. Germany’s Criminal Code had the infamous §175 – in the West and also the East. Not a single country protected LGBTIQ+ people against discrimination, not one had marriage for all, and only a handful allowed trans people to change their names and gender markers on official documents – and that usually only with degrading conditions, I need only mention the “sterilization requirement”.

Since then the number of countries that criminalize same-sex relations has decreased by nearly half, and since the early 2020s more than half of UN member states – nearly 100 – explicitly protect LGBTIQ+ people against discrimination. Same-sex marriage is possible in 37 states, and another 35 states recognize civil unions for same-sex couples. In 24 states, trans people can change their names and gender markers on their own volition.

Regarding the rights of intersex people, there are fewer positive developments to report. The countries that protect intersex children from “normalizing” medical interventions can still be counted on the fingers of two hands. However, awareness is growing that something needs to be changed here too.

None of these changes happened on their own. They were all fought for by LGBTIQ+ movements. Events of the past five years show very clearly, once again, that these successes not only have to be fought for but also must be defended at all times – just like our democracy itself.

Despite all the successes, however, it is crucial not to lose sight of how much work still lies before us. Societal and legal framework conditions have improved, but these changes are not spread evenly throughout the world. Especially in large parts of Asia, the Pacific region and the African continent, the situation remains very difficult – and is worsening in some ways.

We’re also seeing an entire wave of anti-LGBTIQ+ narratives, which, one would have to say, are sloshing across the globe.

Sixty-five countries criminalize consensual same-sex relations – and 12 of them have the death penalty. A few weeks ago Burkina Faso passed a law that criminalizes same-sex relations. We’re also seeing an entire wave of anti-LGBTIQ+ narratives, which, one would have to say, are sloshing across the globe.

In other words: Precisely in development cooperation it is more important than ever to highlight LGBTIQ+ concerns and support the work of local actors – politically, morally and also FINANCIALLY.

This brings us back to where we started – with development cooperation. I’ve already looked at Germany, so now let’s see what’s happening in other donor countries. Which ones provide targeted support to LGBTIQ+ work in their development cooperation?

The Development Cooperation Situation Worldwide

Over the past 10 years, some countries stand out for their support of LGBTIQ+ work in the Global South. The USA and the Netherlands in particular. But also Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Canada to some extent, as well as Australia in the Asia-Pacific region.

They all are – or more accurately were – major donor countries for LGBTIQ+ civil society in the Global South. “Were“ is the term here, because our movement is now facing tectonic shifts – in terms of both financial and political support.

The USA stopped its support for LGBTIQ+ organizations worldwide in early 2025 when Donald Trump took office. Not only that: The Trump administration withheld contractually stipulated funding and then terminated nearly all of the ongoing contracts – with the intent of doing the maximum harm. Successfully so.

The government of the Netherlands, in its strategic reorientation of development cooperation, has stopping viewing civil society organizations as partners. As a result, the Netherlands will discontinue its existing funding mechanisms for work by civil society as of 2026 – which will especially affect queer civil society along with women’s and feminist organizations.

For LGBTIQ+ organizations, the loss of the USA and the Netherlands alone as donor countries means a reduction of more than one third of their resources – within a single year.

And that is not all, unfortunately:

The United Kingdom has cut development cooperation by around 40% in its budget for 2026. In Finland, debate is currently underway as to whether international organizations should be funded at all in the future. Sweden has capped its development cooperation. And Germany, too, has considerably reduced the budget of its Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) over the past 5 years.

For many LGBTIQ+ organizations around the world, this de facto eliminates their livelihood. It also guts the fight against HIV and AIDS in much of the Global South, and means that millions of women do not or will no longer have access to birth control or safe methods of terminating pregnancies. It means reckless disregard for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people. UNAIDS estimates that stopping the US PEPFAR program alone will cost 6.3 million people their lives by 2029 (PEPFAR is the US President‘s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief).

Development cooperation is a matter of justice and solidarity as well as global security and stability.

Here again one should note that development cooperation work is not a matter of alms for the Global South, but instead the obligation to take action for countries and people suffering from war, displacement, poverty, hunger and violence. This responsibility stems not only from our wealth and our obligations to international human rights agreements and from the universality of human rights, but also from the historical and ongoing exploitation of countries in the Global South. Development cooperation is a matter of justice and solidarity as well as global security and stability.

The Global Shift to the Right Threatens Queer Freedoms

Have we now come to the end of my address? Unfortunately not – for thus far we have only spoken about the lack of resources. Throughout the world, LGBTIQ+ people also find themselves increasingly confronted with a resurgence of political hostilities:

Right-wing and politically conservative movements have come to the conclusion that LGBTIQ+ topics can be leveraged for political capital. Such efforts go hand-in-hand with anti-feminist narratives and a reversion to traditional ideas of family, the role of women, and the control of queer and female bodies.

The same forces that catapulted Donald Trump into the White House in the USA are fueling parties in Europe such as the AfD in Germany, the Sweden Democrats and the Fratelli d‘Italia. Similar tendencies are evident around the globe with a rise in anti-democratic forces and the spread of authoritarian policies and practices.

I will now return to development cooperation and in particular to the USA. The closure of USAID this year (2025) meant a loss in official development assistance of tens of billions of dollars.

The latest US budget proposal – which is currently blocked – calls for reinstating around 46 billion dollars for “global leadership and cooperation”. That might sound promising but on second glance is not, because in all probability it would be coupled with an extended Mexico City policy, also known as a global gag rule.

The gag rule is not new. It was introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, and has since been either removed or reinstated by every US president per decree. Donald Trump reinstated it in January. In its present form it stipulates that US development assistance may not be paid to organizations that provide or promote abortion services.

What will come now is an expanded global gag rule – presently in preparation according to reliable White House sources. It is expected to have three components that apply to all development funds and require all recipients:

• to not provide or promote abortion services
• to not have DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) programs
• to affirm the existence of only two sexes: men and women.

If this expanded rule is put into practice – which must be considered likely – we are probably just at the start of a downward political and financial spiral that will challenge societal and legal successes fought for and achieved in SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, sex characteristics), feminism and social justice. For the expanded rule will mean not only much less support from US development cooperation – but that even more funds will flow to already amply financed anti-gender, anti-rights and presumably also anti-democratic actors.

That end is the hollowing out of our democracy and system of human rights.

I would like to conclude with an appeal. We are not just talking about LGBTIQ+ concerns here, about gender justice or physical autonomy. Yes, those topics are certainly affected, but for anti-feminist and anti-LGBTIQ+ actors, they are often simply the means to an end, and that end is the hollowing out of our democracy and system of human rights. The aim is to cement authoritarian practices that allow a few individuals to exercise power and decisional authority over many.

That applies here in the Global North as well as to many contexts of the Global South – and as such, queer development cooperation also and always means promoting democracy.

This in turn means that we are all called upon to act – not as men, women or non-binary persons, not as queer or heterosexual people – but as democrats.

A publication by the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation in cooperation with Engagement Global and Heinrich Boell as part of the project “The Pink Factor”.