Publications & Tools

The 2019-2020 Global Resources Report: Government & Philanthropic Support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Communities is?the most comprehensive report to date on the state of global funding for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) issues. This report documents data on over 15,800 grants awarded by 499 foundations, intermediary NGOs, and corporations and by 17 donor government and multilateral agencies over the two-year period of 2019?2020. This new edition documents a total of $576 million, showing that global LGBTI funding grew by 3%, or over $16 million (USD). Notably, this edition of the report also documents a 38% increase in the number of grantees.
LGBTI funding for LGBTI sex workers remains at less than 1% of overall lGBTI funding globally.

This Briefing Paper documents the stigma and discrimination experienced by LGBT sex workers and highlights differences in their experiences when compared with other members of their respective communities. It also includes recommendations for addressing the double stigma and discrimination experienced by those at the intersection of the sex work and LGBT communities.

“This study examines lived experiences of gender-based violence as faced by lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women, transgender people, and female sex workers in Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The study examines how state efforts to exercise control over women’s bodies, combined with patriarchal social systems, result in a wide array of types of violence. As Ugandan feminist lawyer Sylvia Tamale goes on to say in her introduction to the anthology African Sexualities, such systems of control have origins in British colonialism, at which time “A new script, steeped in the Victorian moralistic, antisexual and body-shame edicts, was inscribed on the bodies of African women and with it an elaborate system of control. The instrumentalization of sexuality through the nib of statutory, customary and religious law is closely related to women’s oppression and gender constructions.” Post-independence governments discovered that sexuality could be instrumentalized to suit their needs, too. Over 50 years since colonial power was vanquished on much of the African continent, patriarchal power over women’s bodies and sexualities persists.”

An extensive library of publications about sex work including overviews, histories, transnational studies, as well as policy and legal debates. debates,

Global Philanthropy Project (GPP), Red Umbrella Fund, Funders for LGBTQ Issues and SWDC collaborated to develop Diving Deeper: Factsheet on LGBTI Sex Worker Funding.

HRFN’s report”examines the state of global human rights funding across issues and populations to explore where support for intersectionality may truly exist. The report is the first comprehensive and global analysis of when and if grants to support human rights reach beyond a single issue or community. The findings show that a resoundingly small fraction of human rights funding supports activism that cuts across multiple communities or issues. Just 18% of human rights grants name two populations, and less than 5% support three or more.”

Of all the populations explored, grants for sex workers were the most likely (71% compared to 33-65%) to be intersectional with at least 2 other populations.

This factsheet aims to summarize and compile information on funding focused on LGBTQI sex workers from the 2017?2018 Global Resources Report: Government and Philanthropic Support for LGBTI Communities published in May 2020 by Global Philanthropy Project (GPP). Available in English and Spanish.

ILGA World passed a resolution opposing all forms of criminalization and legal oppression of sex work. At the same time, the Trans Day of Remembrance reminded us that between January 2018 and September 2020, 60% of the 3,664 trans and gender diverse individuals murdered whose occupation is known were sex workers. In 2017-2018, the LGBTI sex worker human rights funding as a percentage of all LGBTI human rights funding was of less than 1%. “Reviewing data for 2017?2018, we see that in all regions and in a global analysis funding focused on LGBTI sex workers as a population has not matched the growth in overall LGBTI funding and in some regions has decreased over time.”

“Sex workers already face many forms of financial and tech-based discrimination….Here’s what to know about financial discrimination against sex workers, how we’re fighting back, and what Mastercard must do now – and in the longrun – to protect sex workers’ rights.”

“The lives of LGBTQ sex workers in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia are impacted by many hardships, including precarious living conditions, various forms and levels of criminalisation and discrimination as well as violence and human rights violations. […] This briefing paper developed by SWAN aims to fill the gap in knowledge about LGBTQ sex workers in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.” Available in English and Russian.

“In order to show a commitment to human rights, civil liberties, and sound technology policy, it?s imperative that PayPal and Venmo provide transparency to their users… The ACLU has joined 22 other civil rights groups in demanding a stop to PayPal and Venmo’s practices that harm vulnerable communities by shutting people out without due process.

Societal stigma and punitive legal frameworks often severely impede key populations’ rights to raise families free from interference and discrimination. The experiences of key population groups (gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, sex workers, and transgender people) are diverse, and are informed by varying levels of criminalisation, stigma and discrimination, and individual factors such as socioeconomic status, gender, race, and health status. This paper explores these challenges, and provides recommendations for policymakers.
This Policy Brief is a joint effort by three global key population-led networks (INPUD, MPact, and NSWP) to bring attention to the lived experiences of key populations and their families, and highlight the ways that stigma and discrimination inform these experiences. A Community Guide is also available.

Published in 2019 on World AIDS Day (1 December) – author LaLa B Holston-Zannell (Trans Justice Campaign Manager) addresses the intersection between transgender rights, neding HIV transmission, and decriminalizing sex work.

This report documents the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 pandemic measures on marginalized and criminalized communities. State responses to Covid-19 have magnified the inequalities faced by groups and communities that were already targeted or otherwise impacted by unjust and discriminatory criminal laws, including LGBTI people, sex workers, people who use drugs, people in need of abortion, homeless people and people living in poverty. Putting human rights at the heart of
government efforts to address public health emergency responses is not an optional consideration, it is an obligation.

The Kua ‘ana Project is at the intersection of public health, decriminalization, Indigenous rights, and the rights of trans and gender expansive people as they serve the Pasifika trans women and sex workers in Honolulu. Maddalyn Sesepasara, who leads the project, explains that steady allyship means that organizations like hers have enough funding to support both direct service and advocacy efforts, which are equally important.