World
Report details anti-LGBTQ discrimination, violence in Kenya refugee camp
March 15 attack left gay man dead
A new report released on Wednesday indicates nearly all of the LGBTQ people who live in a Kenya refugee camp have experienced discrimination and violence because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration and Rainbow Railroad in May 2021 surveyed 58 LGBTQ asylum seekers who live at the Kakuma refugee camp and the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement that opened in 2016 to help alleviate overcrowding at Kakuma. The groups also interviewed 18 “key informants.”
More than 90 percent of the LGBTQ asylum seekers who spoke with ORAM and Rainbow Railroad said they have been “verbally assaulted.”
Eighty-three percent of them indicated they suffered “physical violence,” with 26 percent of them reporting sexual assault. All of the transgender respondents “reported having experienced physical assault,” with 67 percent of them “reporting sexual assault.”
Eighty-eight percent of respondents said they had been “denied police assistance due to their sexual identity.” Nearly half of the respondents told ORAM and Rainbow Railroad they had to be “relocated from their allocated shelters to alternative accommodation due to the constant abuses directed at them by neighbors.”
Kakuma, which is located in northwest Kenya near the country’s border with Uganda and South Sudan, is one of two refugee camps the U.N. Refugee Agency operates in the East African nation. The other, Dadaab, is located near Kenya’s border with Somalia.
The report notes upwards of 160,000 refugees from South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Ethiopia and Uganda were living in Kakuma as of January.
Those who responded to the ORAM and Rainbow Railroad survey are from Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Yemen and Ethiopia and all of them have asked for asylum in Kenya. Ninety-four percent of them live in Kakuma, while the remaining six percent live in Kalobeyei.
The report also estimates there are 350 LGBTQ asylum seekers in Kakuma and Kalobeyei. UNHCR in 2020 created Block 13 in Kakuma that is specifically for LGBTQ refugees.
Gay man died after Block 13 attack
Two gay men suffered second-degree burns during an attack on Block 13 on March 15. One of the men died a few weeks later at a hospital in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
Forty-one of the Block 13 residents who participated in the ORAM and Rainbow Railroad survey said that “relocation to a safer place as a priority.” The report also notes some respondents who live outside Block 13 “said that the activism in Block 13 was affecting the overall relationship between LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and service providers in the camp.”
“They expressed concern with some activities conducted as part of their activism,” reads the report. “For example, they alleged that some activists were conducting staged attacks on individuals and false claims of violence to attract media attention as part of their advocacy.”
The report notes “allegations of activity from activists in Block 13 have not been confirmed.” Some of the “key informants” who ORAM and Rainbow Railroad interviewed for their report, however, “observed that LGBTQI+ activists from different countries have been supporting the advocacy in Block 13 without considering the local context and potential negative or unintended consequences.”
“They allege that the advocacy has been antagonizing LGBTQI+ members with other refugees in the camp and service providers,” reads the report. “For example, some of the LGBTQI+ asylum seekers were reported to have deserted their allocated shelters, moved to Block 13 and were persistently demanding new shelters.”
UNHCR in a statement after the March 15 attack noted Kenya “remains the only country in the region to provide asylum to those fleeing persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression,” even though consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized. The ORAM and Rainbow Railroad report acknowledges both points.
“Asylum seekers and refugees in Kenya are not immune to pervasive anti-LGBTQI+ attitudes in the community,” it reads. “As the number of LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees increases rapidly, it is important to understand their unique protection needs and plan for safe and dignified service delivery to meet those needs.”
The report notes more than 70 percent of respondents have gone to Kakuma’s main hospital the International Rescue Committee operates in order to receive HIV/AIDS-related services. More than 85 percent of respondents said they “preferred to seek all other health services beyond HIV and AIDS services at the main hospital, since the facility was friendly and provided a stigma-free environment for the LGBTQI+ community in the camp.”
“Respondents reported traveling long distances in order to visit the main hospital,” reads the report.
The report notes limited access to cardiologists and other specialists at the eight health facilities in the camp that UNHCR partner organizations operates. Roughly a third of respondents also said they have “been stigmatized in some of the health clinics.”
“This included being referred to as shoga (a derogatory Kiswahili term used to refer to homosexuality) either by staff members or other refugees in the waiting room while waiting to see a provider, or some providers just directing them to the main hospital with snide remarks about how they do not entertain LGBTQI+ persons in their facility,” reads the report.
The African Human Rights Coalition, the Refugee Coalition of East Africa and Upper Rift Minorities are among the other groups that work with the camp’s LGBTQ residents.
The report notes only a third of respondents “were actively engaged in economic activity at the time of the study, a majority depended on the food rations distributed in the camp.” It also contains 10 recommendations, which are below, to improve conditions for LGBTQ refugees in Kakuma.
1) The Refugee Affairs Secretariat of Kenya must fast-track refugee status determination of LGBTQ asylum seekers with further support from UNHCR and civil society organizations.
2) The Refugee Affairs Secretariat of Kenya and UNHCR must create more responsive and sensitive protection services for LGBTQ refugees in Kenya.
3) Civil society organizations and their supporters should provide livelihood support and other support to meet the immediate needs of LGBTQ refugees in Kakuma.
4) Governments of resettlement countries must resume and fast track resettlement of LGBTQ refugees from Kenya.
5) UNHCR and civil society organizations must continue to build skills development programs for employability.
6) LGBTQ civil society organizations should work more closely with refugee-led organizations and collectives to build self-protection services.
7) Donor communities should participate in more long-term development programming for LGBTQI+ refugees in Kenya.
8) LGBTQ civil society organizations providing support to refugees in Kenya must coordinate more closely.
9) LGBTQ civil society organizations and refugee-led organizations should continue to advocate for more inclusive human rights in Kenya.
10) Civil society must continue the push for LGBTQ human rights globally, including decriminalization of same sex intimacy.
“This much-needed report underscores the challenges, dangers and complexities of life that LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers face in Kakuma refugee camp,” said ORAM Executive Director Steve Roth in a press release that announced the report’s release. “The refugees themselves have spoken and they want to be heard. UNHCR, governments and civil society organizations must work together to ensure the immediate safety and well-being of this community while also addressing the longer term, durable solutions we recommend in the report.”
Rainbow Railroad Executive Director Kimahli Powell added refugee camps cannot “become permanent solutions to crises of forced displacement.”
“The findings of this report confirm a key goal of Rainbow Railroad—to fast track resettlement of LGBTQI+ refugees,” he said. “Rainbow Railroad and civil society partners are ready to provide support to LGBTQI+ persons at risk and assist in further resettlement. Ultimately, we need the UNHCR, the government of Kenya and governments of countries that are destinations for refugees to step up an ensure that LGBTQI+ asylum seekers in the camp are resettled in safer countries.”
Turkey
Dozens detained after Turkish authorities raid LGBTQ groups, businesses
Raids targeted gay bars, activists’ homes
Authorities in Turkey over the weekend detained dozens of people during raids they carried out against gay bars and LGBTQ activists’ homes across the country.
The BBC reported the raids were part of the government’s “My Family is Safe” campaign.
A statement from a group of Turkish advocacy groups the Washington Blade received on Sunday noted Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said the operation included “162 individuals, nine associations, and 13 businesses across 15 provinces.” Prosecutors in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydın, and Mersin are coordinating the campaign.
Kaos GL, one of the country’s largest advocacy groups, was among the targets.
“The authorities have referred to allegations including ‘obscenity,’ ‘facilitating prostitution or providing premises for prostitution,’ exposure of children to allegedly obscene content, drug-related offenses, and other morality-related offenses,” reads the press release the Blade received. “Information from the field indicates that additional allegations, including forming a criminal organization, may appear in some investigation files.”
“The reported inclusion of the offense of “establishing an organization for the purpose of committing crimes” under Article 220 of the Turkish Criminal Code is particularly alarming and, if confirmed, would mark a significant escalation in the criminalization of LGBTI+ human rights activism,” it added. “While LGBTI+ activists and organizations have recently faced and continue to face investigations and prosecutions on grounds such as ‘obscenity’ and alleged violations of the Law on Associations, the use of an organized-crime allegation represents a qualitatively more serious threshold, both in terms of the gravity of the accusation and the potential penalties involved.”
Turkish authorities under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government over the last decade have cracked down on LGBTQ and intersex activists in the country.
Police in 2015 used tear gas and water cannons against people who were about to participate in an Istanbul Pride march. Authorities in 2017 arrested nearly two dozen people who defied a ban on Pride events in the city.
Police in Ankara, the Turkish capital, in 2019, arrested 18 students and an academic who participated in a Pride march at the Middle East Technical University. They faced up to three years in prison, but a court in 2021 acquitted them. Police in 2022 violently broke up a Pride parade at the same Ankara university.
Turkish authorities in July refused to allow a gay cruise ship — the Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyage vessel that Atlantis Events chartered — to dock in Kusadasi, a resort town on the Aegean Sea.
Kusadasi is in Aydın Province, one of the provinces in which authorities conducted the raids. Turkish officials also refused to allow the Scarlet Lady to dock in Istanbul.
A Turkish source on Sunday told the Blade the “My Family is Safe” operation began on the 46th anniversary of a military coup that toppled the country’s government in 1980.
“The fact that this operation began on the night of Sept. 12 — the 46th anniversary of the 1980 coup — is highly significant in terms of the foundations of the prohibitive and repressive mindset directed at the LGBTI+ community,” they said. “Moreover, many LGBTI+ organizations had been subject to official inspections last week.”
“Conducting this operation on a Saturday night shortly thereafter also serves the purpose of heightening fear and anxiety within the community,” added the source.
The source asked the Blade not to reveal their identity.
ILGA-Europe in a statement described the raids as “the systematic dismantling of LGBTI civil society.” Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire is among the European officials who have publicly condemned them.
The Blade will update this story with additional details as they become available.
World
Report: 90 percent of LGBTQ groups around the world have lost funding since 2025
Trump-Vance administration cut US support after it took office
A new report that Outright International released on Thursday notes 90 percent of LGBTQ and intersex rights groups around the world have lost funding since January 2025.
The New York-based global advocacy group surveyed 229 LGBTQ and intersex rights groups in 94 countries.
Forty-nine percent of the organizations that responded said they have lost more than half of their total budget since January 2025 — 75 percent of the groups said they lost more than a quarter of their total funding.
“For nearly half of the respondents, the cuts removed most of the resources that sustained the organization,” reads the report.
When asked which funders “had reduced, suspended, or withdrawn support,” more than half of the responding groups “pointed to a source tied to the United States government, including USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development), the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Department of State.”
“No other funder came close,” notes the report.
‘What was initially framed as a temporary freeze has become a structural disruption’
The Trump-Vance administration froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid shortly after it took office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March 2025 announced 83 percent of USAID contacts had been cancelled, and the State Department would administer the remaining programs. USAID officially shut down on July 1, 2025.
Rubio issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the funding freeze. The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of gaps in U.S. funding.
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
The Outright International report notes the State Department under the Trump-Vance administration “terminated the programs of the Global Equality Fund, the public-private partnership it launched in 2011 with allied governments, companies, and foundations, which distributed more than $100 million in its first decade to LGBTIQ organizations and human rights defenders in over 100 countries.” The Trump-Vance administration, among other things, has withdrawn the U.S. from the U.N. LGBTI Core Group, a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights.
Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin in an op-ed the Blade published on Jan. 28, 2026, wrote the global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement since January 2025 lost more than $125 million — or 30 percent of its total annual funding.
“What was initially framed as a temporary freeze has become a structural disruption,” notes the Outright International report. “The effects have cascaded far beyond U.S. government funding: corporate, institutional, and philanthropic donors have also shifted, stalled, or quietly withdrawn, often without public scrutiny.”
“The broader environment in which LGBTIQ movements operate has continued to deteriorate — with democratic backsliding, anti-NGO legislation, rising violence, coordinated legislative attacks on trans and intersex people’s rights, and emboldened anti-rights actors filling the space left by the retreat of U.S. global leadership.”
The report contains specific examples that include:
• Iraqi lawmakers in 2024 passed a law that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations and transgender people. Funding cuts forced IraQueer, an Iraqi advocacy group, to stop offering safety and security trainings and workshops to activists and LGBTQ rights organizations in the country.
• An intersex-led organization in West Africa can no longer maintain office space or pay its staff.
• An Ecuadorian group that operated a community center for a decade was “forced to close” it on Feb. 1, 2026. “It has been a true loss for the LGBTIQ+ communities in our city and the country as a whole, as we were a model of self-management and resistance in one of Ecuador’s most conservative cities,” said the group in the report.
• An “LGBTIQ-led refugee organization” in Uganda “has lost the emergency relocation support that once moved people facing immediate violence to safer locations.”
• An advocacy group in Ukraine that lost funding said it was “forced to stop paying some of our specialists and reduce our hours for handling inquiries … We used to be able to respond promptly to requests and support people throughout the entire process of resolving their issues, whereas now we are forced to limit ourselves to one-time consultations or refuse assistance altogether due to a lack of resources.”
• The Tonga Leitis Association in the report said a lack of funding has forced it to reduce “the number of activities the organization can run and erodes the prevention infrastructure behind” the country’s low HIV rate.
The Outright International report notes “global LGBTIQ funding had begun to fall even before the current U.S. administration took office.”
It further cites statistics from the Human Rights Funders Network that project “rights-focused development assistance will fall by between” $1.4-$1.9 billion a year by 2026, “with movements for LGBTIQ people’s rights and gender equality among the hardest it.”
“At the same time, LGBTIQ organizations have not stood still,” reads the Outright International report. “They have continued to resist, adapt, and serve their communities under extraordinary pressure, often absorbing the costs of these funding shocks in ways that remain largely invisible.”
“This report is an effort to make those costs — and that resilience — visible,” it adds.
United Kingdom
Grindr settles UK lawsuit over claims it shared users’ personal information
Plaintiffs allege gay hookup company disclosed HIV status to third parties
Grindr has agreed to pay £26 million ($35.24 million) to settle a lawsuit in the UK over allegations it shared users’ HIV status and other personal information with third parties.
The BBC on Monday reported a lawsuit was filed in the High Court of England and Wales in 2024. A class action lawsuit with more than 11,000 plaintiffs was later filed in the U.S.
Grindr in a U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing notes the California-headquartered company as part of the settlement it reached on Sept. 2 will pay £13.0 million ($17.62 million) “to the counterparties” by Dec. 31, 2026, and another £13.0 million ($17.62 million) by March 31, 2027.
“As previously disclosed, in April 2025, Grindr Inc. and Grindr LLC, its indirect and wholly-owned operating subsidiary (collectively, ‘Grindr’), were served with proceedings in the High Court of England and Wales, which proceedings were originally issued in April 2024, brought on behalf of UK Grindr users from a period up to early 2020 alleging violations of UK privacy laws,” reads the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing.
“On Sept. 2, 2026, Grindr resolved the above-described UK group action related to historical data practices before 2020, when Grindr was owned and controlled by the Chinese conglomerate Kunlun,” it continues. “The settlement includes no findings or admission of liability. While Grindr disputes the allegations, it recognizes and acknowledges the distress and loss of trust expressed by some of its UK users regarding that pre-2020 period.”
The filing further notes Grindr in 2020 “was sold to new owners and appointed new management” and in 2022 became a publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Since 2020 Grindr has overhauled its privacy program with a keen focus on the unique needs of its community,” reads the filing. “Grindr is and remains a safe space for users, committed to transparency, user control, and responsible data practices.”
A Grindr spokesperson in the UK on Tuesday referred the Washington Blade to the filing for comment on the settlement.
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