Defend Inclusive Democracy

LGBTQI+ individuals are a favored scapegoat of authoritarian regimes around the world.  Cycles of discriminatory rhetoric and violence often peak during elections, especially during elections that are unlikely to be fully free and fair in the first place. In too many countries, authoritarian regimes find it convenient to unify disparate religious or political groups around a shared animosity toward LGBTQI+ individuals, especially when they are successful in labeling LGBTQI+ citizens as “Western” or “foreign” agents who disrespect the country’s “traditional” values. In this context, LGBTQI+ individuals often are the proverbial canary in the coalmine. In stark contrast, countries that protect their LGBTQI+ citizens are far more likely to protect other ethnic and religious minorities and to entrench democratic values and institutions.

Recently, anti-rights movement leaders also have sought to deploy alternative norms – around concepts such as “Natural Rights” and “Human Flourishing” – that are hostile to the human rights of women and LGBTQI+ persons, and dangerously divested from longstanding international human rights norms and institutions. Their successes can be seen worldwide, with anti-rights policies and funding spreading globally. The boldness and speed with which they are attacking the multilateral system, international cooperation, and human rights instruments, and using LGBTQI+ people and access to abortion as the scapegoats, requires an expansive, rights-affirming response that centers LGBTQI+ persons, in its multiple and intersectional ways of discrimination – as well as other minorities – as agents of democratic preservation and renewal.

The Council is gravely concerned about the emergence of this highly coordinated, highly funded, transnational authoritarian movement to undermine democracy, civil society, and the rule of law in the United States and around the world — a movement that is targeting LGBTQI+ communities and sexual and reproductive health and rights in particular. We also  are deeply concerned that while research is beginning to document the reach of this anti-rights movement, there are not yet adequate mechanisms in place to push back effectively against it. In response, we work in coalition with equality organizations across the globe to fill that gap.