live now: A Global Guide on LGBTQI+ Allyship

26 June 2025

Nieuws

Internationaal
Queers van Kleur

COC Netherlands, Pan Africa ILGA, and ILGA Asia are launching a new guide at the end of May 2025:

“Allyship for the Queer Movement(s): Nurturing Courageous & Difficult Conversations”

Part of the Power of Pride programme, this publication gathers stories and strategies from local partners across Asia and Africa on what meaningful allyship looks like in practice.

Scroll down to understand why we made this guide, read an interview with one of the activists, and access the full publication.

In recent years, across the globe, we have witnessed both progress and an unprecedented backlash against human rights, including LGBTQI+ rights. The origins of these trends are multifactorial, including engrained patriarchy and misogyny, capitalism, neocolonialism, and a global rise in economic inequalities opening up the space for fascism, theocracies, and political calculations, amplified by online and offline media and disinformation. LGBTQI+ communities have seldom been so targeted in the press, in schools, policy spaces, the health sector, and religious communities, than today. Yet, we are also seeing a rise in progressive efforts to counter such inequalities and vehement attacks, including research, advocacy, capacity training, private sector initiatives, and media work. This work requires us to lean on genuine and strategic allyship, breaking taboos and silos, reconnecting people to a new sense of shared humanity, and helping transform pain into hope and joy. Dialogue with and between allies is a fundamental tool in the promotion of LGBTQI+ rights and broader social justice issues. This Guide was developed from the understanding that the only way forward is by strengthening our sense of community, enhancing collaboration across sectors, and continuing to push for real systemic change through and beyond gender matters.

Since 2021, COC Netherlands has been running the Power of Pride program, alongside its alliance partners, ILGA Asia and Pan Africa ILGA (PAI). As part of the learning agenda of this programme, the Power of Pride alliance is running a Community of Practice focusing on allyship for equal rights of LGBTQI+ people, to develop a comprehensive guide outlining successful strategies for allyship supporting LGBTQI+ rights from its local partners based in: South and South-east Asia and Eastern, Central and Western Africa. The Community of Practice requested a study to analyse current trends in allyship and potential strategic developments.

Our research findings form the basis of this Guide, which aims to:

- → IDENTIFY how allyship practices have been, are being, and can be supported to improve LGBTQI+ people’s safety in various national contexts;
- → AMPLIFY international and regional efforts on the safety of LGBTQI+ people grounded in the practical approaches being implemented at the local level;
- → COORDINATE a conversation about how, together, we can move towards increased safety for LGBTQI+ people, which includes efforts to undermine polarisation.

One of the key objectives of this Guide is to amplify existing ways of building bridges and raising awareness, especially amongst moveable middle actors, showcasing grassroots efforts of having difficult conversations around gender and LGBTQI+ rights and building successful allyship to enhance safety for LGBTQI+ people and all human beings. The stories shared throughout this Guide reveal the creativity, adaptability, and resilience of our local partners who work tirelessly every day for a better and safer world for all, regardless of gender and sexuality.

This Guide presents stories of change that seek to soothe individuals’ fears and shift their minds, bringing forward examples of how people have undertaken brave initiatives to build bridges and open communication with conservative neighbors. Thirteen structured interviews were also conducted with key informants – three with informants in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan) and ten with informants in Africa (Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia). The interviewees shared context-specific insights for learning, as well as contributed their knowledge, networks, and expertise to this research. These stories are shared throughout the publication, providing contextualisation, concrete strategies, and opportunities for amplification. This guide is our attempt to share what we learned through this research process, present contextualised stories, and draw threads from the similarities, as well as add analysis to strengthen allyship within and outside the LGBTQI+ movement.