LGBTQI+ Rights

In celebration of World Pride, our Washington office recently welcomed our partners from Equal Namibia and Drag Night Namibia. This article features an inspiring conversation with Omar van Reenen, Co-Founder and Campaign Manager of Equal Namibia, during their visit to Washington, DC.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation is deeply saddened by the tragic and untimely passing of our long-standing partner, Imam Muhsin Hendricks. May his legacy continue to inspire all those he taught, uplifted, and welcomed into his sanctuary of compassion, understanding, and love.

After years of protesting against Namibia’s anti-queer laws, the country’s LGBTQIA+ communities breathed a collective sigh of relief after a recent court victory, which ruled colonial-era sodomy laws unconstitutional.

Zimbabwe has been far from a safe haven for women and the LGBTQ+ community. Small progressive steps have been made. However, with homosexuality being an outright punishable offence and one in three women in Zimbabwe being the victim of sexual abuse, while one in four has suffered physical abuse, it has been made abundantly clear that Zimbabwe, as it stands, is not safe for us. On the eve of this historic election, it may be the case that the potential “change” we are hoping for may also not include us.

The Unexceptional Parent is a short documentary that offers an honest and affirming look into the lived experiences of South African parents of transgender children.

Uthingo Network and other CSO’s are concerned about the ongoing bullying and discrimination against queer learners in South African schools. Read the joint open letter to Minister of Basic Education to create accountable and queer-affirming school environments.

In celebration of Pride Month, we’re profiling one of our newest partners, Equal Namibia, a youth movement for equality, led by activists and community organizers, supported by a coalition of individuals and civil society organizations committed to realizing equality and fundamental civil rights for LGBTQ+ persons in Namibia.

Freedom is not absolute in South Africa and never will be. In fact, the notion of absolute freedom, while it sounds good to say, is an absurd fallacy.

Watch the story of Aslam, a young Muslim boy who comes out to this mother and the difficulty he experiences as he tries to reconcile his sexual orientation and gender identity with Islam.

Over the past two and half months, South Africa's LGBTIQ+ community has been rocked by a series of brutal hate crimes against its members - from KwaZulu-Natal to Gauteng, from the Eastern Cape to the Western Cape. At least six lives - that we know of - have been snuffed out in cold blood. We share here a joint statement by some of our partners calling for more to be done about these horrendous crimes!

The Africa Division at our Head Office recently engaged with group of "loud and proud" Queer feminist activists and writers from South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya on their motivation and inspiration for their feminist activist work on gender and sexual identity. A series of published interviews have since followed. Read here a conversation had with South African activist Seoketsi Mooketsi (Seopowerr). 

At the intersection of religion and sexuality, this journal article, based on research supported by HBF's Keeping the Faith project, explores how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people navigate dynamics of inclusion and exclusion within faith-based settings.