LGBTQIA2+ organizations in Europe and Central Asia incurring hardships

by David Itai

A recent report by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - Europe (ILGA-Europe) has revealed that LGBTQIA2+ organizations in Europe and Central Asia are incurring a lot of challenges.

The challenges range from financial, social provision and psychological stress for those that work within the LGBTQIA2+ organizations.

According to the report, 84.9 percent of the organizations that were assessed said they had been faced with burnout issues. The most common cause of stress and burnout across was not being able to meet the needs of LGBTQIA2+ people coming in for help (49.7 percent), responding to COVID-19 (46.1 percent) and having to respond to external threats from right wing, anti-LGBTQIA2+ or anti-gender groups (43.6 percent).

The report further assessed challenges that LGBTQIA2+ organizations face and mapped the diversity of work done and communities served by organisations. About three-quarters of LGBTQIA2+ organisations identified a lack of funding for the activities that are most important to their organisation as a barrier to implementing projects. Furthermore, the report also indicated that despite the mounting workloads, burnout and growing threats and attacks, LGBTQIA2+ organizations continue to widen their work, focusing on a variety of highly vulnerable groups within the LGBTQIA2+ community, such as migrants, young people, trans and non-conforming people, and are in dire need of additional resources to ensure that they can strengthen these efforts.

"Behind the rich data contained in this report there is a powerful story of LGBTQIA2+ activists who amidst growing opposition, rising oppression and an unfolding pandemic have continued to stand up for their communities, reached out to those who are most affected and continued to undertake new work and build partnerships to meet today’s challenges, but resources continue to be scarce. The stark findings of this report should be a call to action to anyone who can and wants to support or step-up their commitment to support LGBTQIA2+ organizations," said ILGA-Europe Programmes Director, Björn van Roozendaal.

However, despite the daunting information in the report, LGBTQIA2+ organizations across the regions have grown the proportion of their own resources to support their work by getting more donations from companies and private donors.