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LBQ Connect: Empowering Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Women
August 15, 2022| Contributed by Laura Piazza and LBQ Connect Project and OutRight's Senior Program Manager
LBQ Connect is Inclusive and Participatory.
The program's primary target are lesbian, bisexual, and queer women–both cisgender and trans–and all non-binary people on the gender spectrum who relate to a lesbian, bisexual, and/or queer identity
Learn about our new Executive Director
August 3, 2022| Contributed by OutRight International
Prior to becoming Executive Director, Maria Sjödin served as OutRight’s deputy executive director leading the work of the development and communications teams. In this position, they oversaw a period of extraordinary growth in visibility, diversification and increase in funding, in addition to launching groundbreaking initiatives, such as OutRight’s COVID-19 Global LGBTIQ and Ukraine Emergency Funds and pioneering engagement with international businesses.
USAID’s Humanitarian Action Policy Should Be LGBTIQ-Inclusive
July 14, 2022| Contributed by Amie Bishop - OutRight's Senior Research Advisor
The world is contending with an onslaught of complex and overlapping humanitarian crises, whether caused by conflict, disease, climate-related events, extreme poverty, or political upheaval. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) 303 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2022, compared to 274 million people at the end of 2021. Of the total population in need, at least nine million people, and as many as 30 million (three to ten percent of the population, based on a range of studies) likely are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer, or intersex (LGBTIQ).
The rainbow will shine more brightly in Peru
July 12, 2022| Contributed by Alberto de Belaunde and OutRight's Program Advisor - Global Advocacy
A multicolored tide interrupted a gray winter day in Lima. On Saturday, June 25, the 20th edition of Pride March was held in Peru's main city. There is consensus among the organizers and the press that this was the year with the most extensive public attendance. In addition to the march in Lima, Pride marches were also held in more than 20 cities across the country, something unprecedented in Peruvian history.
The Fight to End Conversion Practices in Africa
July 11, 2022| Contributed by Yvonne Wamari and Khanyo Farisé - OutRight African Program
OutRight Action International has been actively involved in countering and challenging conversion practices globally. The term conversion therapy is most widely used to describe practices attempting to change, suppress or divert one’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Outright Supports Efforts to Ban Nonconsensual Intersex Surgeries in Australia, Greece
July 11, 2022| Contributed by By Kimberly Zieselman - Contributor
Intersex people’s human rights are too often an afterthought, even among govenrments that profess support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) equality. But two governments are poised to make significant progress on the rights of intersex people.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity at the UN: The mandate that needs to stay
July 1, 2022| Contributed by Isa Calero Forero & Lauren Breuer - OutRight International Summer UN Interns
In early July, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) will vote on renewing the mandate of the United Nations Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). Members should vote in favor of renewal of this mandate, which plays a critical role in documenting human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity and working with governments to advance the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people.
“It’s Important to Fight Every Single Day”: Kyiv Pride Comes to Warsaw
June 27, 2022| Contributed by J. Lester Feder and Senior Fellow - Emergency Research
With shouts of “Glory to Ukraine” and “F— Putin,” thousands of Poles marched through the streets of Warsaw on Saturday alongside a delegation of Ukrainian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) activists.
The queer-led March for Peace, organized by the Warsaw Equality Parade and KyivPride, was a historic show of solidarity for Ukraine’s queer community amidst Russia’s assault on the country. The war has transformed LGBTQ organizations on both sides of Ukraine’s borders, including in Poland, as advocacy groups turned themselves overnight into humanitarian and shelter organizations to support queer people inside Ukraine or forced into exile.
Supporting LGBTIQ Ukrainians, Inside and Outside Ukraine
May 12, 2022| Contributed by Neela Ghoshal - OutRight's Senior Director of Law and Policy & Research
Within hours of Russia’s assault on Ukraine in February, OutRight Action International began mobilizing support for LGBTIQ groups across the country. We now are supporting more than two dozen queer groups within Ukraine that transformed themselves overnight. They opened shelters for the displaced, created programs to distribute food, medicine, and other aid, and offered psychological and legal help. Most of these groups were focused on advocacy and community building; they rapidly had to learn how to provide emergency humanitarian aid. And activists are doing all this work while dealing with all the hardship and trauma war has brought to their own lives.
STATEMENT ON THE MURDER OF SHEILA LUMUMBA
April 26, 2022| Contributed by Yvonne Wamari - OutRight Africa Program Officer
(Nairobi) OutRight Action International condemns the brutal murder of Sheila Lumumba that occurred in her home, in Karatina, Nyeri County, in Kenya, on 19 April 2022. It was reported that six men broke into Sheila’s apartment, tortured, raped, and killed Sheila. It is alleged that this was a homophobic attack on Shelia.
The Importance of Transgender Visibility
March 30, 2022| Contributed by Andrew Schlager (Dev and Comms Assistant) - Jordan Hubbard (Communications Intern)
Visibility is an indisputable and fundamental part of the modern-day human experience. To be visible can often mean being represented, validated, and appreciated. However, for the transgender community around the world, attaining and maintaining visibility is an ongoing battle that sometimes turns dangerous and/or violent. The incredible experience and journey of Rikki Nathanson, a legendary transgender activist and leader, perfectly captures this reality.
How NFTs & Crypto Philanthropy Are Helping OutRight Fight for LGBTIQ Human Rights Everywhere
March 28, 2022| Contributed by Katie Hultquist (Director of Leadership Giving) - Jordan Hubbard (Communications Intern)
OutRight is dedicated to searching for new and innovative ways to uplift and support the global LGBTQIA+ community. Although our global movement is severely under-resourced and faces increasing threats, there has been significant social and legal change over the last few decades and we believe there is a pivotal opportunity to radically accelerate equality everywhere. However, we need more allies to be successful in our efforts. This unwavering motivation and commitment has led us to the world of NFT and cryptocurrency philanthropy! NFTs and cryptocurrency have truly taken the world by storm. From expanding the ways in which one can be an activist to fostering and inspiring a new wave of art movements, NFTs in particular are emerging as a vital avenue for 21st century philanthropy, community building, and creative expression.
Sri Lanka’s Criminalization of Lesbian Sex is Discrimination, UN Body Finds
March 24, 2022| Contributed by Neela Ghoshal - OutRight's Senior Director of Law and Policy & Research

Repealing laws that prohibit consensual relationships between people of the same sex “is essential to prevent and protect against violence, discrimination and harmful gender stereotypes.” This clarion call to decriminalize same-sex relations is one of the striking pronouncements in a groundbreaking March 23 decision in which the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) found the government of Sri Lanka in violation of its obligations under international law to prevent discrimination against women.
St. Lucia “breaks the bias” with new, LGBTIQ-inclusive domestic violence act
March 15, 2022| Contributed by Leah Thompson - OutRight'sCaribbean Advocacy Officer

On March 8, St. Lucia’s Parliament passed the landmark Domestic Violence Act, 2022, becoming one of the few countries in the Caribbean to provide legal protections to people in same-sex relationships who experience domestic violence—and the only country in the region to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the implementation of such laws. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people whose relationships may fall outside a cisgender, heterosexual norm are now able to access all the resources and remedies provided in the Act, including protection orders from the court.