Dear John,

I've been doing this work for more than 25 years. I've learned that progress isn’t linear. It spirals. It doubles back. Sometimes it feels like we're climbing a mountain only to discover another peak behind it.

2025 tested that understanding.

In January, as Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, roughly 180 couples lined up in Bangkok on the first day the law took effect. Some had waited decades. I thought about the activists who built that moment over the years, showing up when victory seemed impossible.

A few weeks later, the U.S. government froze foreign aid. Programs that provided HIV treatment, safety resources, and legal aid disappeared. Overnight, Outright had to suspend 120 grants in almost 50 countries. Staff at partner organizations lost their jobs. Communities lost services they depended on to survive.

That's what 2025 felt like. Joy and devastation, often in the same week.

What We Witnessed

We tracked numerous wins and setbacks across every region this year.

Poland repealed the last of nearly 100 so-called "LGBT-free zones," proving that discriminatory policies aren't permanent. Saint Lucia struck down colonial-era laws criminalizing same-sex relationships, joining a wave of decriminalization across the Caribbean. The Council of Europe unanimously adopted recommendations protecting intersex people from non-consensual medical procedures. All 46 member states signed on, including countries with poor LGBTIQ human rights records.

These wins came from years of organizing. People showed up, again and again, often at great personal risk.

The setbacks were brutal. We’re still reeling from Burkina Faso passing laws criminalizing homosexuality. Trinidad and Tobago's appeals court reinstated penalties that had been overturned. Argentina, once a global leader on trans people’s rights, saw its president ban gender-affirming care for minors. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld state bans on gender-affirming care for youth, abandoning transgender children to political whims.

We mourned. According to Caribe Afirmativo, Colombia recorded at least 43 homicides of LGBT people in the first five months of 2025. The Trans Murder Monitoring project reports that more than 5,000 trans and gender-diverse people worldwide have been killed since tracking began in 2008. Brazil once again had the highest number of reported murders, marking its 18th consecutive year at the top of the list. These numbers matter, but they don't tell the whole story. Each of those people had a name. Loved ones. A community. And each had dreams that were stolen.

How We Kept Going

When the U.S. aid freeze hit, Outright had a choice. We could retreat, or we could document what was happening and fight back.

We chose to fight.

In February, we released Defunding Freedom, a rapid-response report documenting how the funding cuts devastated LGBTIQ movements worldwide. We turned partner testimonies into evidence that funders, diplomats, and journalists could use. We took that evidence to governments and multilateral bodies, pushing them to close the gap. As a result, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden have now allocated funding to support LGBTIQ organizations globally.

Around IDAHOBIT in May, we launched something I'm particularly proud of: updated country overviews, comprehensive human rights overviews for LGBTIQ people in every UN member state. When the Trump administration gutted State Department reporting on LGBTIQ issues — a tool that diplomats and asylum decision-makers relied on — we built an independent alternative. It's a living resource we'll keep updating, and it's already being used in advocacy around the world.

In September, we published Queering Democracy, examining what happened to LGBTIQ people during the historic super-election year of 2024, when half the world’s population could vote. We found that in 51 of 61 jurisdictions we studied, candidates weaponized anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric as a deliberate campaign strategy. "Gender ideology." "Grooming." "Foreign agents." The playbook spread across continents. But we also found that LGBTIQ people ran for office in 36 countries. Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender member of the U.S. Congress. Trans candidates also made history in several other countries, and while they did not win their races, they marked historic firsts in places such as  Venezuela, El Salvador, and Sri Lanka.

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we released A Year in Attacks on Trans, Nonbinary, and Intersex People's Human Rights: a comprehensive global accounting of the constitutional amendments, legislative rollbacks, and policy attacks targeting these communities in 2025. The Trump administration's January executive orders denying the existence of trans and intersex people sent a signal that emboldened governments worldwide. We documented it all.

We published research on digital violence targeting lesbian, bisexual, and queer women in Asia. We released practical guidance for legislators seeking to ban conversion practices. We co-authored a report on intersex advocacy at the UN, following the historic adoption of Resolution 55/14 — the first time an internationally agreed UN document defined what "intersex" means.

In Ukraine, our two-year effort to integrate LGBTIQ inclusion into the humanitarian response has reached a turning point. The LGBTIQ Communities Technical Working Group is now a formal part of Ukraine's UN coordination structure. The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan includes a dedicated LGBTIQ paragraph and references across multiple sector plans. This is a model we can replicate elsewhere.

In November, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a disability-rights resolution that, for the first time, explicitly recognizes that persons with disabilities may face discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It is only the third General Assembly resolution in history to reference sexual orientation and gender identity — a significant step forward for global human rights norms.

None of this happened because conditions were favorable. It happened because our team, our partners, and our supporters refused to stop.

Human Rights Day: A Moment to Reflect

Today, December 10th, marks Human Rights Day — the anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Article 1 declares that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." Seventy-seven years later, we're still fighting to make those words real for LGBTIQ people everywhere.

This day matters to me because it reminds us that the framework for our liberation already exists. The question has never been whether LGBTIQ people deserve human rights. The question is whether the world will honor the commitments it has already made.

This year, we saw what's possible when those commitments are taken seriously: the Council of Europe's unanimous adoption of intersex protections, the UN General Assembly's first-ever recognition of LGBTIQ people with disabilities, the continuing wave of decriminalization across the Caribbean. These victories happened because activists held institutions accountable to their own promises.

They also remind us what's at stake when those commitments are abandoned. When governments weaponize "gender ideology" or freeze funding for lifesaving programs, they are breaking promises to LGBTIQ people and undermining the entire human rights framework.

I invite you to hold both the truths of the vision of universal dignity that Human Rights Day represents, and the unfinished work of making it real. That tension is where our movement lives.

Looking Toward 2026

When I think about 2026, I'm holding several things at once.

Grief for those we've lost. The activists killed for their work. The trans people murdered for existing. The communities devastated by funding cuts, disasters, and state violence.

Gratitude for those who keep showing up. Our board of directors and staff from 25+ countries. Our partners on the frontlines. Our donors who didn't walk away when things got hard. You.

Resolve. This movement has never depended on favorable conditions. It has always been built by people who refused to wait for the world to be ready.

We'll keep organizing. We'll keep documenting. We'll continue to show up hand in hand with our partners at the UN and in communities worldwide. We'll host Outsummit again. We'll bring activists to Advocacy Week. We'll update our country overviews, track attacks on trans and intersex people's rights, and build the evidence base our movement needs.

We cannot do any of this without you.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Thank you for staying.

With solidarity,

Maria Sjödin (they/she)

Executive Director

Outright International

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