“It takes a community to survive,” said Vikramaditya Sahai at GiveOut’s recent end of year briefing. Vikram is an LGBTQI activist and associate at the Centre for Law and Policy Research in India.
In what has been a horrible year for all of us, LGBTQI communities around the world have suffered more than most. But with the support of our community globally, including GiveOut’s incredible supporters, the LGBTQI movement has shown incredible resilience and even won important victories.
Thank you so much for digging deep and helping to make this possible.
THE IMPACT OF COVID-19
At the beginning of the pandemic, GiveOut heard quickly from our grant partners that the virus and lockdown measures were amplifying existing vulnerabilities for LGBTQI communities globally.
In Southeast Asia, ASEAN SOGIE Caucus reported that lockdown measures were devastating LGBTQI livelihoods. This was mirrored in Jamaica, where TransWave and J-FLAG found that 25% of the LGBTQI community had lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
Our grant partners told us about the impact of lockdowns and social isolation, with LGBTQI people more likely to be trapped in abusive situations and disproportionally affected by mental ill-health. The Kaleidoscope Trust found that 85% of LGBTQI organisations surveyed expressed concern about the wellbeing of their communities.
Compounding this, we have seen LGBTQI people scapegoated for the pandemic and even facing serious human rights abuses. Police in Uganda and elsewhere have specifically targeted LGBTQI shelters, using lockdown measures as a justification to shut down our safe spaces.
We also know that LGBTQI people have struggled to access health care, including essential HIV medications and hormone treatments. In response to this, our grant partner Access Chapter 2 has been working to share accurate information about COVID-19, and to support contact tracing and testing among LGBTQI communities in South Africa.
THE RESILIENCE OF THE LGBTQI MOVEMENT
GiveOut responded to the unfolding disaster by launching our COVID-19 LGBTQI Global Solidarity Fund, a world-first emergency appeal to support LGBTQI organisations respond to the pandemic and support our communities.
Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we have been able to provide emergency grants to LGBTQI organisations working around the world, on top of the long-term support we already provide. These grants have enabled our partners to support LGBTQI communities across five continents and build organisational resilience for the future.
In the Caribbean, we supported TransWave and the United Caribbean Trans Network to deliver emergency packages of essential items and food to trans people in need across 10 Caribbean countries.
In Southeast Asia, we supported ASEAN SOGIE Caucus to make small grants to support LGBTQI livelihoods during the pandemic. This included a grant to a trans group in Thailand to establish a food delivery business, ensuring a reliable income while also providing a vital service to the wider community.
And in one very sensitive context, we have supported an organisation to mobilise volunteer networks to deliver anti-retroviral medications to LGBTQI people living with HIV.
This year really has been a matter of life and death for our communities.
In their response to the pandemic, LGBTQI organisations around the world have shown incredible resilience, continuing their vital work defending our communities and demanding equality. They have adapted their ways of working, developed new services and approaches to activism, and pivoted to provide absolutely vital emergency humanitarian support.
And they have even won important victories. This year, Gabon and Bhutan decriminalised same sex relations, while Sudan lifted the death penalty for homosexuality. The first same-sex marriage happened in Northern Ireland, with victories for marriage equality in Costa Rica, parts of Mexico and Sark, and civil partnerships introduced in Montenegro. There were also wins for LGBTQI equality in Barbados, Switzerland, and Hong Kong.
Our trans communities faced an onslaught of hate, though there were victories for trans rights in Israel and the U.S elected its first trans state senator. In a historic first, 36 states across the globe called on the UN Human Rights Council to urgently protect intersex persons. And in the year that the UN Independent Expert on SOGI called for a global ban on so-called conversion therapy, Albania did just that, as did Mexico City and Germany for those under 18.
STANDING SHOULDER TO SHOULDER
GiveOut’s supporters have stood shoulder to shoulder with the LGBTQI movement this year, providing more of the resources that are so desperately needed.
Despite the challenges of this pandemic, GiveOut has continued to grow. We have pushed ahead with new initiatives to build connections between our supporters and grant partners, including innovative virtual events, our groundbreaking podcast SoundOut, and the launch of our Women’s Fund.
We are now supporting 28 organisations across five continents. And with our third portfolio of grants to be announced early next year, in just three years our community of supporters will have provided over £600,000 to support LGBTQI human rights activism globally!
None of this would be possible without our incredible supporters: our founding sponsors, including the Boston Consulting Group and the Baring Foundation; our Special Focus Fund sponsors Antonia and Andrea Belcher, Suki Sandhu, Steve Wardlaw and Emerald Life, James Frost, Tag Warner and GAY TIMES, LBTQWomen, Travers Smith, and EV Energy; those businesses that donated to our COVID-19 Fund and supported our work, including Macquarie, Global Butterflies, Goldman Sachs, Latham & Watkins, Simmons & Simmons and TSB; our 100 Circle of closest individual supporters; and everyone who has donated this year.
Thank you so much.
Next year, we will be announcing some exciting new initiatives and opportunities to support our global community as the world looks to “build back better” towards a more equal future.
We wish you a peaceful and safe Christmas, with time to reflect and recharge. Here’s to a better 2021, for all of us and our communities around the world.
The GiveOut team