Across the globe and with increasing confidence, populist leaders are leveraging anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric to consolidate power, often portraying queer identities as threats to national identity, tradition, or religious or family values. Some nation states are introducing bans on 'LGBTQ+ propaganda,' crackdowns on Pride events, and the revocation of legal protections. Judicial systems in some countries have become complicit, eroding hard-won rights and ignoring international human rights commitments. Transgender and non-binary people, in particular, have become targets and scapegoats in both legal and cultural arenas, suffering disproportionate violence and exclusion. LGBTQ+ populations have become weaponised as geo-political tools, as the hard-won rights we have worked hard for, are being systematically stripped away. This has to stop. It is time to make the world #SaferToBeMe.

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Under the theme of 'Power, Populism and Politics,' this international conference will bring together scholars, human rights activists, policymakers, members of the concerned public, allies, and civil society leaders to examine the alarming global trend of LGBTQ+ rights erosion in the context of rising populist and authoritarian regimes. Against a backdrop of increasing nationalism, religious fundamentalism, state-sanctioned discrimination, and democratic backsliding, this conference will assess the current state of LGBTQ+ rights in the United Kingdom and globally, identify patterns of regression and the points of light, and develop strategies for resistance and resilience.

 

As part of our wider week-long programme of Summit events, our two-day conference brings people from across the U.K. and from all parts of the globe to become better informed, work together to build partnerships and strategies, and to begin our process of fighting back in an ever changing world.