PAN Africa ILGA: Collective Power in Uncertain Times

The atmosphere at LGBTI+ human rights convenings can feel like stepping onto a thin, swaying tightrope. On the one hand is the sheer euphoria – the unmistakable buzz that crackles to life when lived experience transforms into collective power. It’s in the echoes and jubilant shouts across crowded rooms, the warm embraces of collaborators reunited after years – sometimes decades – of distance, struggle and determination.

But joy never arrives alone. It is often paired with an air of apprehension. After the greetings and the celebration, the questions come: What’s next? How far do we still have to go? Where is the funding our communities so urgently need? Which strategies are succeeding, which need rethinking? And beyond the events and policy discussions, these questions are just as present – often painfully so – at the personal level. 

Human rights defenders are not only fighting to protect their communities; they are fighting to secure the basic rights that so many others take for granted: the right to love, form relationships, and assemble peacefully. Rarely do we have the luxury of pensions, stable incomes, secure housing or any real safety net. Recent international funding cuts have pushed many into even deeper precarity, stretching resilience to its limits. 

This tightrope – between exhilaration and exhaustion, hope and fear – is the quiet backdrop to every convening I’ve attended, and this year’s PAN Africa ILGA conference in Johannesburg, South Africa was no exception. The same jubilation reverberated through the halls, the same urgent search for answers surfaced in every conversation I had – but this time the stakes felt even higher. The gathering took place against a backdrop of unprecedented uncertainty: shrinking donor landscapes; rising authoritarianism; and increasingly hostile legislation weaponised in the name of ‘traditional family values’. And yet, despite the gravity of this global moment, activists from across the continent showed up with determination and courage – ready to walk the tightrope together.

Kaleidoscope Trust attended PAN Africa ILGA to stand alongside partners and members of TCEN. This was a crucial forum for activists operating on some of the most challenging frontlines in the world. We listened to first-hand accounts of the daily pressures facing our communities – stories marked by fear and endurance – and to the creative, resourceful ways organisations are adapting in real time. From discussing the architecture of the transnational anti-rights movement to hearing reflections from LGBTI+ people of faith on the ‘double exile’ they face: exclusion by religious institutions on one hand, and marginalisation within queer spaces on the other. 

We also used this opportunity to share our own contribution to the global response: the Global LGBTI+ Rights Commission. Joined by our inaugural Commissioner, Friedel Dausab, we shared the themes of our forthcoming papers, and invited delegates to sign up to the Advisory Council, to navigate some of the most pressing challenges of the moment: the weaponisation of trans rights, colonialism and LGBTI+ rights, and the manipulation of faith narratives (and funding) to justify discrimination. 

The key message I carried away from Johannesburg was clear: none of us can face these challenges alone. Collaboration may look different for every organisation and every individual, but we are all weathering the same storm, and balancing along the same tightrope. This convening was a reminder that our collective strength – our ability to listen, adapt and collaborate – is far greater than the sum of our parts.