OutRight Action International

OutRight supports LGBTIQ organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa and works with mainstream human rights organizations to promote dignity and influence positive changes in laws, policies, attitudes, and beliefs that cause discrimination against LGBTIQ people on the continent.

Currently, OutRight's flagship program in Africa centers on ending sexual orientation and gender identity change practices (so-called conversion therapy) in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.

OutRight’s pioneering report, Harmful Treatment: The Global Reach of So-Called Conversion Therapy, exposed that conversion practices aiming to change, divert, convert or suppress the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of LGBTIQ people, including with physical and psychological force, are prevalent across the world. Including, and especially, across Africa. These practices are the epitome of LGBTIQ-phobia, as they show the extent of unacceptance of LGBTIQ identities, and the extent to which people will go to change and eliminate LGBTIQ people.

OutRight works with a coalition of partners - Equal Rights in Nigeria, The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, and Access Chapter 2 of South Africa - to build an evidence base on the nature, extent, and characteristics of conversion practices in Africa, primarily in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa; to raise awareness on the harmful impact of these practices on the lives of LGBTIQ persons, to equip civil society to identify cases and provide support to victims and survivors, and to advocate for a complete ban of these practices.

OutRight believes that change happens at different levels and sees the value of working in diverse spheres of influence. The Africa Program works at all levels: grassroots, national, regional, continental, and global to affect change.

Our work in Asia promotes acceptance of sexual and gender diversity at all levels of society. Our staff includes the regional coordinator from Malaysia who is based in the United States and a project coordinator based in the Philippines.

Several Asian countries— Myanmar, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka, among these—have laws criminalizing intimacy between same-sex couples. Even in countries without such laws, those who challenge sexual or gender norms confront state and community discrimination and violence. Through research that we coordinated in several countries, we have found that LGBTIQ people also face high levels of violence within their families. Many people cannot report violations and are forced to lead double lives and suffer in silence.

To increase access to justice and protections for LGBTIQ people, our staff is developing ways to track and ultimately change discriminatory laws, policies and practices. We monitor anti-discrimination bills as they are being drafted, push for inclusive language and implementation of laws prohibiting domestic violence, and develop legal and non-legal strategies to improve police responses and responses of human rights monitoring bodies.

We work to increase the visibility of Asian activists, respond to human rights emergencies, and actively bridge local, regional and international activism to achieve equality and justice.

In recent years, the LGBTIQ community and civil society have grown in strength and number in the Caribbean. Numerous organizations have been formed and obtained legal registration and thus have supported their local communities and have been advocating for change.

Additionally, OutRight has helped to support the registration and formation of the region's first transgender network and contributed to strengthening partnerships in the region. In turn, OutRight has seen activism and visibility increase in the region.

While over half the countries still criminalize same-sex relations under so-called “buggery laws” left over from British colonial rule, since 2016 Belize and Trinidad and Tobago have overthrown these colonial legacies, and cases have been launched by civil society and individuals in St. Vincent & Grenadines, Jamaica, Barbados, and Dominica, as well as at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

However, changing legislation alone does not lead to genuine inclusion of LGBTIQ people in society, nor does it change societal perceptions. To address this, OutRight's current programs in the Caribbean – established and conducted in close collaboration with local activists – focus on tackling gender-based violence, challenging deeply ingrained and outdated expectations of gender roles which lead to violence against those who do not fit the narrow parameters, and training service providers on LGBTIQ inclusive services. OutRight continues to support civil society efforts to decriminalize same-sex relations and promote the formation of legal gender recognition procedures, particularly through advocacy at national, regional and international levels.

Outrights work in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has focused on Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. We partner with local groups in various countries in the region as part of our international solidarity work.

Along with activists in the region, we work to raise attention to – and stop – human rights violations based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. OutRight has an extensive Iran program to support the efforts of the Iranian LGBTIQ community and their allies. We have produced a diverse set of resources in Persian to combat homophobia in the media, and to offer legal and religious analyses and perspectives in support of tolerance, and to challenge cultural and social narratives that dehumanize individuals because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. OutRight also has close partnerships with LGBTIQ groups in Turkey, to support the ongoing struggle of the activists to gain equal rights and protection under the law.