LGBTQI+ inclusion IS effective development

(This opinion piece was originally published in Devex on February 12, 2025)

Opinion: LGBTQI+ inclusion is imperative for effective aid and development

To development organizations that survive the Trump administration aid purge: Please remember to leave no one behind, not even LGBTQI+ persons.

By Mark Bromley and Julie Dorf

The Trump administration’s cruel and shortsighted suspension of foreign assistance is devastating those who depend on the lifesaving generosity of the American people. The country’s flagship development agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, is being shuttered, thousands of U.S. citizens are losing their careers, and hundreds of development organizations administering that assistance are facing an equally existential crisis.

Some development organizations will survive the 90-day aid review process imposed by the Trump administration, even as they are furloughing staff and biding their time, betting that their U.S. government funding eventually will be turned back on. But we know that the vast majority of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex, or LGBTQI+, organizations dedicated to supporting some of the world’s most marginalized and persecuted communities do not share that hope.

In the face of the Trump administration’s 90-day suspension of U.S. foreign aid, we urge mainstream development organizations to remain dedicated to the rights, equality, and inclusion of LGBTQI+ persons, even as the Trump administration tries to turn our communities into the enemies of development.

Worsening consequences for LGBTQI+ communities

LGBTQI+-led organizations that promote health, rights, and inclusive development around the world know that their U.S. funding will not be restored in 90 days and that many LGBTQI+ organizations will have to close.

The cruel reality is that other vulnerable groups are likely suffering today just so that the Trump administration can punish and ultimately sideline LGBTQI+-inclusive development – our communities are being instrumentalized and demonized to attack all foreign assistance. In this harsh context, we urge mainstream organizations that survive the funding purge to remain committed to the moral, economic, and epidemiological logic of inclusive development — the recognition that investments in the health and prosperity of any country are severely compromised if the most vulnerable in society are left behind.  

We have welcomed and are grateful to development organizations that in recent years have embraced LGBTQI+ inclusion as an essential part of effective development and humanitarian programming. LGBTQI+ people in low- and middle-income countries and in crisis settings have benefited substantially from efforts to include them and address their specific needs.

We now face a new landscape. Many LGBTQI+ communities will lose access to basic services and fundamental freedoms like health care, livelihood support, protection in crises, and the right to exercise their civil and political rights. This comes at a time when LGBTQI+ people are likely to face heightened risk of homophobic and transphobic violence because of the rhetoric of the Trump administration and the increasingly well-funded and emboldened anti-gender movement. We face an existential threat to the progress we have collectively achieved for all people in need, including the most marginalized.

Inclusive development means supporting LGBTQI+ persons

During this extraordinarily difficult period, we will do all we can to ensure that LGBTQI+ individuals, communities, and organizations around the world are supported and able to survive. But we cannot do this alone. We urge mainstream development organizations and other funders to demonstrate their continued commitment to inclusive development.

We call on development organizations to use every opportunity both public and private to stand up for all marginalized populations, including LGBTQI+ people. Please continue to emphasize that LGBTQI+ inclusion is an inseparable part of humanitarian action and development, whether in public statements, conferences, publications, or closed-door conversations with donors, partners, and Congress. As strong allies in the past, your silence on this issue would send a grave message that LGBTQI+ people are dispensable.

Much of the progress made toward inclusive development in recent years has been a result of a collective insistence on upholding the dignity, rights, and inclusion of all people. The development community has made courageous choices to ensure that no one is left behind. Now, as that choice gets harder, we ask that you continue standing up for the principles and policies that have led to such progress.