The undermining of the rights of LGBTI people serves as the tip of the spear in a broader backlash against human rights protection overall.

They are accompanied by rollbacks in women’s rights, restrictions on independent media and civic space, attacks on judicial independence and national human rights watchdogs, and hostility toward migrants and refugees.

The playbook is familiar across borders: political actors and others with influence exploit economic hardship, war, climate breakdown, and technological disruption to manufacture fear and discontent.

They scapegoat marginalised groups, present basic equality as a threat to traditional family values or children and dismiss international law as “ideology”.

When democracy comes under pressure, LGBTI people are often the first targets.

…LGBTI people are not asking for “special rights”. They demand only what international law promised every human being after the devastation of World War II: to be treated like everyone else – to have their basic human rights acknowledged, to be protected by international treaties just like everyone else, and to live with dignity as themselves, free and equal. Their rights are not an ideology, nor are they inherently in conflict with the legitimate rights and interests of others.