As we mark LGBT History Month, we’re profoundly grateful to everyone standing up for our community around the world.
2025 was brutal. The US freeze on foreign assistance and the expansion of the global gag rule to include so-called “DEI” have triggered a funding freefall for LGBT health and rights organisations. This isn’t a setback, it’s an existential crisis. And it’s spreading.
At the same time, attacks on our community are accelerating, fuelled by foreign money and driven by a coordinated global anti-rights movement. Tyranny is reaching for its oldest weapon: scapegoating minorities to weaken democracy.
And yet, we endure. We organise. We persuade. That’s our superpower.
This summit must be about more than grief. Grief matters but strategy matters more. We need a smarter, tougher, more united path forward.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Around the world, our community is being denied access to HIV prevention and treatment. The cruelty is staggering: the very people who fought for the science and risked their lives in trials are now locked out of the breakthroughs they helped create.
For the next generation, HIV prevention and treatment must be a birthright. Denying it is theft, plain and simple.
That’s why the government’s global LGBTQI programme matters so much. Leading on equality isn’t just morally right, it’s strategically smart. Human rights strengthen global stability, health security, and democracy itself. Nowhere is that clearer than in the fight against HIV.
With love,
Elton and David
