After a year marked by legislative setbacks and devastating cuts to funding, the outlook for LGBTQ+ rights in 2026 could be daunting, with elections, court decisions and legal reforms likely to affect policies and people around the world.
After taking office last year, US President Donald Trump ended years of funding for global rights initiatives and HIV prevention, while lawmakers in Ghana, Kazakhstan and Turkey clamped down on LGBTQ+ rights.
In a see-saw year, Thailand and Liechtenstein embraced marriage equality and Lithuania celebrated its first same-sex civil partnership, but Burkina Faso and Trinidad and Tobago criminalised gay sex.
Courts are set to rule on LGBTQ+ rights in Japan, Botswana and Hungary, and election outcomes in Uganda, Peru, Colombia, Bulgaria, the United States and New Zealand will be significant.
In Colombia, the mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, could become the country’s first female and lesbian president, while in Peru, the leading candidate, Rafael López Aliaga, opposes both gay marriage and abortion.
The International Olympic Committee has said it will announce eligibility criteria for trans athletes early in 2026 after a working group was set up by IOC President Kirsty Coventry to protect the female category in sport.
Here are the key areas to watch in 2026.
Africa
In Botswana, a same-sex couple is suing the government for the right to marry, with the next hearing scheduled for February. Botswana does not have marriage equality.
Ghana’s Family Values bill, which would toughen a colonial-era law criminalising gay sex, could become law in 2026 after President John Dramani Mahama promised to sign it if it passed through parliament.
Zimbabwe is expected to begin a law reform process to recognise intersex people for the first time after seven people filed a lawsuit against the government last year.
