After the grim revelations of 2025, what next?

The lessons of 2025 should shape LGBTQ rights strategies for 2026 and beyond

“When the United States suddenly withdrew from its role as a leader in global LGBTQ+ advocacy, it left a huge void.” (David Becker photo courtesy of Reuters)

COMMENTARY
In this commentary, Fabrice Houdart, the  executive director of the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, discusses what LGBTQ rights advocates can learn from the setbacks 2025, which he calls “Our Annus Horribilis” — our horrible year. He explores the issue in his weekly newsletter on LGBTQ+ Equality. Click HERE to subscribe.
 
2025: Our Annus Horribilis — And the Reckoning Ahead
By Fabrice Houdart
2025 felt like a plot twist on the road to queer liberation. As the year ends, we must ask ourselves: what have we really witnessed, what have we learned, and what is the playbook for 2026?
The Perspective Crisis
Throughout our history, LGBTQ+ communities have responded to crises with resistance and reinvention. Stonewall sparked our reaction to state violence; the AIDS epidemic compelled us to confront the deadly neglect of our governments. Amid the devastation, our community invented new ways to uphold dignity, opportunity, and change.
2025 marks a major turning point. The brutal loss of American allyship revealed how heavily we had depended on Democrats, unreliable corporate allies, and the international Human Rights Framework to meet our liberation goals. When the political winds in the U.S. and the global mood shifted, we found ourselves nearly exposed.
This clarity is liberating.
The Center Shifted
It is worth prefacing this assessment by mentioning that the upheavals of 2025 affected not only LGBTQ+ people. Black communities in the United States, Europeans wrestling with a suddenly fragile alliance as the new U.S. National Security Strategy was announced; Ukrainians feeling a sense of abandonment; women, migrants, and climate activists losing a key supporter; and civilians in Gaza and across Africa facing the harsh realities of limited international solidarity. The list of those who experienced a rude awakening in 2025 is long — and we are only one part of it.
For LGBTQ+ people, the shock of 2025 hit hard because our recent global story hinged a lot on the U.S.’s leadership, which turned into multinational support or international organizations ’ support. As recently as 2024, American government, philanthropic, and corporate sources supplied more than half of all LGBTQ+ funding worldwide. When the United States suddenly withdrew from its role as a leader in global LGBTQ+ advocacy, it left a huge void. The 4.2% of the world’s LGBTQ+ population living in the U.S. suddenly faced direct threats and the kind of ritual humiliations we saw recently, while abroad, multilateral institutions softened their positions to appease their American shareholders, and local movements lost a powerful supporter — and in some cases, gained a new opponent.

At the same time, other somewhat unrelated setbacks in other countries worsened. Russia continued to oppress queer communities with strict laws. The UK’s gender debates became deadlocked over policies. China, which hosts a large portion of the global LGBTQ+ population, banned LGBTQ+ apps while increasing digital surveillance of LGBTQ+ leaders. Despite what we are told, these were not a single coordinated attack; they often reflect different forces—authoritarian control, culture wars, real wars, democratic fatigue, and, at times, strategic errors by our community. Still, together, they shattered the illusion of inevitable progress.
The Other Story
Yet 2025 was not only a retreat. It was also rebalancing. While some centers pulled back, others stepped forward.
In January 2025, Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. (Photo courtesy of Diva Magazine)
Thailand legalized same-sex marriage in January, becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to do so. India, which holds 18% of the global LGBTQ+ population, continued to embed anti-discrimination principles in its constitutional debates, even as marriage equality remained contested. Brazil relaunched ambitious commitments on LGBTQ+ rights and sent its self-described ‘homophobic’ past President to jail. Even the Vatican, under Pope Leo XIV, inched further into dialogue and recognition, at least for gay people.​
See Also

Beyond these headline wins, countless quieter shifts unfolded even in the most challenging contexts. These were not Western exports. They were local victories built on regional leadership and ingenuity.
In short, our community now carries momentum that no longer depends on the United States. More striking still, we possess enormous collective power: we are more numerous, more prosperous, and more connected than at any point in our history—linked by technologies that barely existed twenty years ago and are accelerating in our favor.
Lessons from the Great American Retreat
What 2025 taught us can be distilled into three lessons that should shape 2026 and beyond.

First, we cannot outsource our liberation. For too long, our ecosystem relied on American diplomacy and funding, European kind words, and corporate DEI and CSR budgets. When those faltered, much of the machinery stalled. Building durable power means investing our own money and influence in our institutions, movements, and cross-border alliances.
Second, the old playbook is obsolete. Visibility once offered protection; now it can be a target. Symbols that are used to open doors can also make us easy to find—and to attack. Strategies that made sense in the Obama era do not necessarily work in an age of backlash politics and algorithmic outrage. New strategy must prioritize coordination, resilience, and local ownership over performance and branding.
Third, we have the power; we don’t harness it. In 2025, queer communities had visibility, wealth, and influence—but limited access to the leverage they have. True power is the ability to coordinate, act, withstand shocks, and set agendas. That requires planning, shared infrastructure – including technological, and a genuinely global mindset.

From Shock to Strategy
What struck hardest in 2025 was not only the backlash itself, but also our unpreparedness for it. We clearly mistook visibility for exercised power. We also faced a leadership vacuum with entrenched vested interests resisting a shift in our strategy. The absence of a unified response, the feeling of being on the verge of losing everything, and the lack of independent momentum were signs of our shortcomings.
Yet out of that shock came focus. A quieter, more grounded energy is emerging. From a challenging year came more innovation than ever, a re-engaging of queer elites, and a rebalancing of voices. Every day, I witness a renewed energy to reinvent ourselves.
People often ask what they can do. The answer is both modest and demanding: don’t despair—build. Stay connected. Stay awake. Stay ready.
2025 was not our undoing. It was our reckoning. It reminded us that our strength has never rested on one country, one model, or one narrative. In 2026, that clarity must guide us as a global community—one ready not just to protect what we’ve built, but to imagine a future far beyond our 1969 dreams.