France, do not turn your back on LGBTQI communities around the world!

Queer rights groups call on France to stand up for LGBTQI people 

Rainbow flags decorate City Hall in Paris, France. (Photo courtesy of Tetu)
As several countries in Francophone West Africa enact strict new crackdowns on queer people, several LGBTQI, feminist and human rights associations based in France and elsewhere published an open letter calling on the French government to do more to advocate for and protect LGBTQI people around the world.
Erasing 76 Crimes has reproduced the open letter below, in English translation.
COMMENTARY
As Senegal descends into a general crackdown targeting queer people, several LGBTQI, feminist, and human rights organizations are calling on the French government to strengthen its solidarity with LGBT+ communities worldwide.
On the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia, Transphobia, and Aphobia, and one year before the 2027 presidential election, we, members of French civil society and people from diverse countries who have chosen France as their adopted country, urge France to reaffirm its commitment to defending fundamental rights and freedoms by strengthening its solidarity with LGBTQI communities around the world.
Faced with the rise of anti-rights and anti-gender movements supported by the second Trump administration, France must intensify its efforts. The stakes are high for sexual, gender, and sexual minorities: increased criminalization in Senegal, violent repression by anti-democratic forces in Burkina Faso, a rise in organized attacks in Bangladesh, censorship of freedom of expression in Hungary, and the erosion of hard-won gains in India, to name just a few.
This is not the time to back down or withdraw. France must keep its historic promise to establish an order in which “the purpose of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man.”
See Also

We therefore call on France to:

Increase public development aid. France bears some responsibility for the existential crisis facing LGBTQI organizations worldwide today. The decline in official development assistance observed over the past three years is impacting the funding of civil society and jeopardizing programs that directly and decisively support the livelihoods of many people. We call on France to halt these cuts and, furthermore, to increase funding allocated to human rights, gender equality, and the fight against HIV/AIDS, particularly for LGBTQI groups in Francophone Africa, which are among the most under-resourced in the world, as well as in other countries hostile to sexual and gender diversity.
Reaffirm a feminist and inclusive foreign policy. We welcome France’s publication last November of a new feminist diplomacy strategy that reaffirms its commitments to equality, including the rights of LGBT+ people. However, given the worsening and increasing number of attacks against LGBTQI communities, we call for their systematic integration as a cross-cutting theme across all of France’s foreign policy. This requires increasing funding for the International Strategy for Feminist Diplomacy 2025-2030 and its inclusive implementation, as well as renewing the International Strategy on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for the period 2027-2031. In particular, we call for the increasing attacks on the rights of trans and intersex people to be explicitly recognized in this Strategy.
Strengthen French rainbow diplomacy. Supporting civil society organizations ensures effective action adapted to local contexts. Despite the current budgetary situation, we urge France to increase the resources allocated to the Ambassador for LGBT+ Rights and to the work of French embassies in support of LGBTQI activists worldwide, commensurate with the worsening global situation.
Combat the erosion of international standards. Standards that enjoyed consensus just two years ago are now being challenged in an effort to dismantle the protections guaranteed to LGBTQI people by international law. We count on France to work towards maintaining the language relating to diversity, intersectionality, sexual orientation, and gender identity in UN resolutions in the face of attempts by the United States and other states to redefine “gender” and exclude LGBTQI people.
Make France a refuge for all. France, and in particular the LGBTQI communities, must strengthen its support for LGBTQI people threatened in their countries, especially LGBTQI activists who are increasingly at risk. More than ever, France and Europe must remain a land of asylum.

This is not out of excessive pride, nor out of any claim to a unique historical role. International solidarity is a moral duty, a form of reparation for historical wrongs, and a common-sense policy to defend understanding between peoples, international security, and multilateralism in the face of rising isolationism.
Signed by:
International LGBTQI SolidarityInter-LGBTSOS HomophobiaSTOP HomophobiaCONTACT FranceAssociation for the Universal Decriminalization of HomosexualityEuropean Centre for Human RightsPASTT (Prevention, Action, Health, Work for Transgender People)Bi’CauseArc EssentielD&J Arc-en-cielFrench Motorcycle Sports AssociationLyon LGBTI+ CentreMarseille Pride OrganizationBFC-Dijon LGBTQIA+ CentreLa Gom’ 53 – Mayenne LGBTQI+ CentreAfrique Arc-En-Ciel Paris IDFCAELIF (Collective of LGBT+ Student Associations of Île-de-France)Ça va (Association for LGBTQ+ People from Eastern European, Caucasus, and Central Asian Countries)JusticeMakers Bangladesh in FranceChina Rainbow Collective FoundationFemme Battantes