The United Nations’ top human rights official has delivered a blunt assessment of the global climate for LGBTQ and intersex people: political hostility is intensifying, persecution is spreading and the organizations expected to respond are losing the resources they need.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk spoke September 21 during a high-level event held by the U.N. LGBTI Core Group alongside the General Assembly. He characterized the current backlash as deep, coordinated and unfolding across regions rather than as a collection of isolated national disputes.
A warning grounded in current events
Türk pointed to governments criminalizing consensual same-sex relationships, branding LGBTQ organizations as security threats and using anti-LGBTQ rhetoric during election campaigns. Recent raids on LGBTQ groups, homes and gathering places in Turkey provided one immediate example of the danger.
The Core Group event brought together governments, civil-society organizations and international institutions under the theme “Championing Diversity in Times of Adversity.” Mexico and Norway currently co-chair the coalition.
The United States, which withdrew from the group after the Trump administration returned to office in 2025, sent no government representative to this year’s event.
Frontline organizations are losing money
The warning arrived shortly after Outright International published a major assessment of the financial crisis confronting LGBTQ organizations.
Outright surveyed 229 groups across 94 countries; 203 reported losing funding since January 2025. Nearly half of those affected lost more than half their total budgets. Sixty-three percent said they could no longer respond adequately to emergencies involving violence, arrest, displacement or urgent relocation.
Those findings describe the surveyed organizations, not every LGBTQ group worldwide. Even with that limitation, the results reveal how quickly political decisions made by major donors can reach shelters, clinics, legal programs and emergency relocation networks.
What happens next matters
Several governments used the U.N. event to announce or highlight new funding. The Netherlands pledged €50 million for international LGBTQ work, while the United Kingdom pointed to a £21 million commitment covering 2026 through 2029.
Money alone will not reverse discriminatory laws or hostile political campaigns. It can, however, keep people housed, represented in court and connected to health services while advocates pursue longer-term change.
Türk’s message was ultimately larger than a warning about LGBTQ policy. When governments decide that some people’s freedoms are optional, the damage rarely remains confined to one community.
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