On Thursday, Feb. 20, we commemorated World Social Justice Day amidst an unprecedented flooding crisis that devastated homes and families across Botswana. We had to remind Batswana of the importance of consistency in ensuring justice for everyone. Even in times of crisis; poor urban planning, drainage systems and property workmanship have led to disruption, impacting over 2,900 lives and the loss of at least seven by Saturday morning. Schools were closed and government staff working in shifts reminded me of the COVID-19 pandemic where prolonged stays at home increased vulnerabilities for women and children in their diversity, mental health deteriorated, gender-based violence increased and longstanding health inequities worsened. These are the realities of those in rural areas living with HIV and those with disabilities even when there is no crisis. 

President Trump’s executive orders have further aggravated the situation.

Key populations at risk of HIV, LGBTI and sex workers, no longer have nondiscriminatory targeted health provisions or indirectly, emergency response measures through intermediary funders from civil society office shut downs and budget cuts to explicit exclusions of any diverse groups—most notably, transgender and gender diverse folks like myself. Close friends no longer have homes or furniture. Sporadic electricity and water cuts are the order of the day even in unaffected areas, going as long as two days without either. Unsurprisingly, there are no queer emergency funds or digital individual giving infrastructure, or dedicated philanthropic efforts to rise to the occasion. A true reflection of the paradox of a higher middle income country. An economic classification that has led to perpetual declines in overseas development assistance and the assumption of a thriving democracy. I often ask myself, a thriving democracy for who?

When COVID-19 vaccines first arrived, they were held in a private residence for the elite to be vaccinated. When our constitutional review bill was tabled before the 12th parliament, there were protests against the inclusion of intersex protections. When we first had floods in January, the more underserved and impoverished areas were impacted. There were no nationwide initiatives for donations from the business community as we do now, concentrated in the capital city. Gaborone. It seems we did not learn from previous cyclones, floods, tremors or pandemics domestically or regionally. Every day, I am reminded of how unequal and unjust my country is. Despite a change in government, I still got pulled from an interview on national television less than five minutes from the shooting schedule. I am left to question whether it’s my gender identity, expression or not carrying the right kind of surname? The topic had already been approved and the channel staff reached out to me directly for a conversation on sex work within the queer community in rural settings. 

A thriving democracy does not leave you questioning your dignity and personhood. It ensures transparency and accountability as a part of its culture. A higher middle income country takes care of all its people, not just the elite. Social protections, universal health coverage, diversity and inclusion are not afterthoughts. Anchored in political will, the respect in the indivisibility of human rights trumps the bare minimum of the rule of law. However, my country only reflects the global geopolitc: A world where power and equality are defined by economic, social, military and financial capital. One that continues to draw from the planet, working poor, and othered without shame or repercussions. It’s a power that Toni Morrison spoke of as a profound neurosis on a Charlie Rose interview. Explaining that those who abuse power are bereft. Void of seeing others as human or with any empathy. Whilst she might have been focusing on racism as a social and institutional construct, I understand now: That the hubris of fear [or phobia] can only resort to violence, subjugation and abuse of office. That it is a reflection of poor upbringing, self indignity and a lack of humanity in oneself.

As our exclusion is institutionalised, one understands that we are truly powerful. National architecture redirected and prioritised towards us. National attention, laws and inhumanity towards us for merely existing. Whilst it may trigger trauma and injustice; it also propels our existence as resistance. It unearths the insecurity that dictators and tyrants in offices and government alike, have to face when sitting with themselves at the end of each day. Having to account for their shortcomings and inadequacy despite being wealthy and in power. They are intellectually deficient and denied any morality just as imagination. A prison of oneself, where they are the center of the world, but really aren’t. It is an abyss, a plateau that only knows growth in exploitative profits and never in personhood. Defaced from any identity, history and culture—void of kindness to oneself. So they try to take these away from us instead. This is why I believe all is not lost. As we write, sing, and share our stories, as we connect beyond borders and binaries. We rejoice in meeting our peers in solidarity, reminding each other that we cannot be silenced or erased. From shared resilience to shared joy in our activism, Václav Havel’s words ring true: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.” 

Dumi Gatsha is a consultant and founder of Success Capital Organization, a grassroots NGO working in the nexus of human rights and sustainable development at grassroots, regional, and global levels.

Just two weeks ago, the director of a Ugandan LGBT+ crisis center watched helplessly as their last reserves ran out following the U.S. aid freeze. With no emergency funding in sight, they were forced to turn away desperate individuals seeking shelter from life-threatening violence. In Peru, a trans women’s shelter that provided food, medical care, and legal support shut its doors overnight, leaving residents with nowhere to go. In Côte d’Ivoire, a life-saving HIV prevention program collapsed, putting thousands at immediate risk. These are just a handful of the stories we heard in All Out’s global partner survey, a rapid assessment of the damage being done by the Trump regime’s reckless and cruel decision to freeze all U.S. foreign aid.

The U.S. action stems from Trump’s Executive Order 14169, titled Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, which mandates a 90-day pause on all U.S. foreign development assistance programs. The order claims that the U.S. foreign aid system is “not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.” But what values does the United States government truly believe in when a policy decision leaves thousands of marginalized people without shelter, healthcare, or even a chance at survival? The aid freeze has not safeguarded American interests — it has simply endangered the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

For years, the U.S. has played a critical role in supporting LGBT+ organizations worldwide, bridging the financial and political void left by foreign governments that fail to safeguard the rights of their LGBT+ citizens. But in one stroke of a pen, that support has disappeared. The results have been catastrophic.

According to the Global Philanthropy Project, the total amount of LGBT+ aid likely to be cut by the U.S. and the Netherlands alone is estimated at $105 million — one in every four dollars of government funding for LGBT+ causes worldwide. The impact is immediate and devastating: our partner survey reveals that 75 percent are reporting increased risks to life, health, or safety of community members as a direct result of the aid freeze. More than two-thirds have already had to shut down programs or lay off staff. Nearly a third are on the brink of closure.

The consequences are particularly dire in places where LGBT+ people already face criminalization, violence, and social exclusion. Shelters for LGBT+ refugees and survivors of homophobic and transphobic violence have been shuttered across multiple countries. One of our Ukrainian partners shared, “Many LGBT+ individuals are now without a safe place to go, and we are seeing an increase in homelessness and violence.” In Sudan, activists who provided emergency aid to LGBT+ people fleeing war and persecution are now unable to help. In Colombia, a program offering economic inclusion programs for trans migrant women has had to close, forcing many into dangerous and exploitative conditions just to meet their basic needs.

The Trump regime justified the aid freeze as a 90-day review of spending priorities. But for LGBT+ people on the frontlines, 90 days without funding can be a death sentence. And while Trump’s spokespeople have tried to dismiss the freeze as temporary, organizations have already begun receiving termination notices. The intent is clear: This is part of a broader rollback of human rights commitments. And the vacuum left by U.S. disengagement is already being filled by authoritarian regimes that weaponize homophobia and transphobia for political gain.

But while the U.S. government is abandoning its commitments, the rest of the world cannot afford to do the same. Governments that claim to champion LGBT+ rights must now step up at pace to fill the funding gap. Private donors, including corporations that have long benefited from rainbow capitalism, must also act.

For years, LGBT+ activists have built movements on shoestring budgets, navigating impossible conditions with resilience and determination. But resilience is not a funding model and our communities deserve better. If we do nothing, decades of progress could unravel in months. And make no mistake: More lives will be lost.

Governments, philanthropists, and the broader international community must act now. This is not just a political decision — it is a moral one. The brave partners we spoke to in our survey are running out of options. The question is whether the world will stand with them — or turn away as they are left to suffer and die.

Matthew Beard is the executive director of All Out, a global LGBT+ non-profit that works towards a world in which nobody has to sacrifice their family, freedom, safety or dignity because of who they are or who they love. Before joining All Out in 2016, Matthew was the Global Director of Fundraising and Communications at Action Aid, an international non-profit focussing on women’s rights and anti-poverty. For 10 years, Matthew also served in various senior communications and fundraising roles in the UK, Germany, Australia, and Canada for Amnesty International.

Feb. 24 marks three years since Russia began its full-scale attack on my home country, Ukraine. I haven’t been in Ukraine for more than 10 years, and I spent almost all those years in LGBTQ activism.

I was barely an adult when my family left my hometown, Donetsk, after the declaration of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic by Russian puppet separatists in 2014.

So many things have changed since then—my school friend was barely able to escape the Mariupol bombings together with two little children. Small cities in the Donetsk region that were barely known to outsiders and were places of my father’s business trips turned into battlefields frequently mentioned in international news. And all my queer acquaintances except for one left Ukraine.

This revealed how the world has shifted into globalization and how LGBTQ rights are used as bargaining chips in political debates, and now the fate of LGBTQ Ukrainians is partly dependent on the U.S.

Because Russian officials were using LGBTQ people as a symbol of everything “immoral” and “Western,” they used LGBTQ people in their war propaganda both against the U.S. and against Ukraine. For example, the leader of the state-supported Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow stated in 2022 that the war in Ukraine happened because “people in Donetsk do not want Gay Prides” as a justification for the war, and that the gay Prides are the ultimate test that the Americans and the West are using to find out whether Ukrainians are ready to abandon “Russian traditional values.”

But when I asked a transgender person, L., who was living in Donetsk between 2014 and 2022, they explained that they do not face transphobic challenges that many queer people face in Russia, and the younger generation in Donetsk was pretty much LGBTQ friendly. Even Russian puppet forces didn’t care much about LGBTQ people back in those days.

A majority 58 percent of Ukrainians hold neutral or positive attributes toward their LGBTQ citizens, according to recent polling.

The LGBTQ phobia wasn’t something that the Donetsk people were willing to protect with their lives; it was something that Russians used in their propaganda war to justify the invasion and killing of Ukrainian civilians, including children.

For a long time, Russia labelled LGBTQ organizations as “Western agents” and used anti-American rhetoric in their homophobic propaganda.

But there was actual help that the Ukrainian LGBTQ community received from the U.S., not because of some kind of conspiracy, but because of humanitarian reasons, because Russian state propaganda and the Soviet anti-LGBTQ legacy made it hard for LGBTQ Ukrainians to find financial support for community activism.

On the anniversary of the war, I spoke with Igor, a Ukrainian lawyer born in Donetsk, political analyst, and expert on the American-Ukrainian relationship, currently based in Vienna, about how MAGA and the current American political situation influence LGBTQ people in war-torn Ukraine.

“U.S. support, particularly through USAID and other grant programs, has been essential to sustaining services for LGBTQ individuals in Ukraine” Ihor explained. “Without it, many of these services — like specialized shelters, emergency housing, HIV counseling, and psychological support — would disappear. For instance, shelters in cities like Dnipro and Chernivtsi that offer safe places for LGBTQ people escaping war zones exist largely thanks to international donor funding.

USAID has backed public outreach and education initiatives aimed at fostering open dialogue on LGBTQ issues, which in turn helps combat anti-LGBTQ propaganda. If USAID’s programs were dismantled, we would see an immediate and severe impact: safe spaces could close, mental health support could end, and marginalized groups would be left even more vulnerable. Essentially, the destruction of this aid framework would roll back critical progress and expose the LGBTQ community to greater risks with fewer avenues for help.

To compensate for these losses, pro-LGBTQ NGOs would need to seek alternative funding sources from private donors — such as the Open Society Foundations — or EU-based donors. However, it remains uncertain whether those sources can fully replace the scale and consistency of current USAID-backed programs. Essentially, the destruction of this aid framework would roll back critical progress and expose the LGBTQ community to greater risks with fewer avenues for help.”

At the same time, LGBTQ people in Ukraine are now facing much more grave danger because of current American politics.

President Donald Trump told reporters that it is unlikely that Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, hinting that Ukraine needs to sacrifice the Crimea and Donbas regions — including my hometown, Donetsk. This plan was also promoted by the American delegation at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 14-16.

Meanwhile, situations with LGBTQ rights in Donetsk worsened. For example, my attempt to find open LGBTQ people in Russian-controlled Donetsk for one of my articles ended with a comment from my bisexual nonbinary friend Roman, who told me that LGBTQ people in Donetsk are now avoiding getting in contact with outsiders because they are scared of “fake dates,” when thugs or occupational security forces pretend to be LGBTQ-friendly journalists, physiologists, or potential partners to lure a queer person into a trap. LGBTQ people in Donetsk couldn’t speak openly about their sexual orientation and gender identity.

“In occupied areas like Kherson and Crimea, Russian authorities have specifically targeted LGBTQ+ individuals,” explained Ihor, and a Trump deal could make everything even worse, making it permanent. “The MAGA approach to Russia-Ukraine relations under Trump poses significant risks to Ukraine’s LGBTQ community. If MAGA policies lead to territorial concessions or normalization of Russian control over parts of Ukraine, LGBTQ individuals in those areas would face severe repression under Russian law. Russia’s “gay propaganda” laws criminalize public expressions of LGBTQ identity and advocacy. In previously occupied regions like Crimea and Donbas, there have been documented cases of violence, arrests, and forced disappearances targeting LGBTQ individuals under Russian rule”

Indeed, it’s true. For example, the Russian-occupied Chechnya, an official Russian administration government ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, is hunting LGBTQ people as part of a mass-terror campaign.

Chechnya has always been a quite conservative region compared to Western Europe; sexuality and gender identity wasn’t something that was widely discussed in independent Chechnya after the Soviet Union collapsed, before Russia attacked the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1994. It was a private and family matter, but after 400 years of Chechen anti-colonial fighting, Russians decided to break resistance by destroying the whole idea of a private life. Only after Russia got Chechnya under its control, a mass-terror campaign against LGBTQ people began, and sometimes even non-LGBTQ people were framed as “gay,” tortured, and killed.

The Russian administration in Chechnya was actively hunting dissidents and even their relatives, or just accidental young men who could be framed as terrorist supporters, separatists or spies for better “crime detection” statistics or to be sent to the war in Ukraine as a “Russian” cannon fodder.

The same could happen not just with LGBTQ Ukrainians, but with any open-minded and independently thinking Ukrainians in Donbas and Crimea if Ukraine is forced by the United States to sacrifice territories.

It is possible that it’s up to Americans now to stop their government and to help Ukrainian LGBTQ people save themselves from persecution and extermination.