From the Ground Up: The Power of LGBTQI+ Movement-Building

“Refugee crisis” has become a familiar shorthand, but it cannot fully account for the lived realities of LGBTQI+ refugees navigating systems never designed with their safety, dignity, or survival in mind. While stories of forced displacement dominate global headlines, far less attention is paid to what sustains LGBTQI+ people through crisis: the power of LGBTQI+ movement-building on the ground.

A coordinated global anti-gender backlash movement is reversing strides in  human rights protections for the LGBTQI+ community, accelerating forced displacement amid state repression. This moment is not defined by a single emergency, but by its convergence with: climate collapse, armed conflict, democratic backsliding, and a sharp rise in anti-LBGTQI+ and anti-refugee hate.

At Rainbow Railroad, these shifts are felt every day. We currently receive one request for help from an LGBTQI+ person at risk every 26 minutes. Last year, more than 20,000 people reached out seeking protection. These requests are more than individual pleas for safety; they are data points mapping a disturbing global trend driving LGBTQI+ forced displacement.

Meeting this Moment: A Constrained Landscape for LGBTQI+ Organizations

A historic collapse in humanitarian funding, including the $63 billion funding shortfall caused by the dismantling of USAID, has sent shockwaves through the global aid system. Funding cuts have restricted access to food, water, medical care, and other essential services. 

For LGBTQI+ movements, the impact is especially severe. As major funding streams withdraw, grassroots LGBTQI+ organizations, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, are increasingly forced to navigate funding channels with both rigid reporting requirements and a heightened state of surveillance, leaving little room for them to breathe. This exerts pressure on LGBTQI+ organizations seeking funding to raise awareness about their work in an environment where visibility carries real risk. The other option, to protect their own safety, is to remain unseen and unsupported.

Building Capacity and Responding to Crises

Rainbow Railroad’s Crisis Response Fund (CRF) and Grassroots Mobilization Fund (GMF) intentionally create spaciousness within this constrained landscape. 

Our programs exist to create a refuge for LGBTQI+ people navigating complex social landscapes that too often determine who is allowed to rebuild a life and who is turned away. While the Grassroots Mobilization Fund’s partnership model invests in the long-term capacity of grassroots LGBTQI+ movements to sustain change, the Crisis Response Fund ensures that support reaches forcibly displaced LGBTQI+ communities when timing is a matter of survival.

By trusting LGBTQI+ community leaders as architects of their own safety strategies, Rainbow Railroad moves beyond traditional grant-making toward a solidarity-based resourcing model. The return in value on this approach is clear across regions. Rainbow Railroad is seeing a growing network of LGBTQI+ organizations and community initiatives that are resourced to lead and contribute to change. In practice, our funding model has enabled grassroots organizations to respond to complex and rapidly changing realities with agility and depth. When communities have agency over resources, they do more than deliver services; they provide a sense of belonging and reclaim LGBTQI+ narratives.

Rather than demanding exposure, these funding pipelines prioritize trust, flexibility, and safety. We reduce the administrative burden and center care over compliance, encouraging local LGBTQI+ movements to act decisively, creatively, and on their own terms based on community need. The result is that organizations build the capacity to respond to a crisis without compromising their security or integrity.

Increasing Impact by Investing in Frontline Organizations

In 2025, the Crisis Response Fund disbursed over $400,000 CAD, supporting frontline organizations responding to displacement and persecution across the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the African Great Lakes region, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas. These funds enabled emergency cash assistance, shelter, medical care, and protection for thousands of LGBTQI+ individuals and families navigating forced displacement.

At the same time, the Grassroots Mobilization Fund ensured that strong, community-led organizations were not excluded simply because traditional funding mechanisms failed them. Last year, 31 grassroots organizations were supported, with more than $500,000 USD disbursed worldwide to groups working in contexts where relocation options are slim and risks are constant from refugee settlements to urban transit hubs.

Not Just a Number: Strengthening LGBTQI+ Movements

Rainbow Railroad’s CMF and GRF supported 61 organizations and reached more than 16,000 people. Rainbow Railroad’s Chief Impact Officer, Rabab Al Khatib, reflects on the impact of both initiatives: 

“This is not just a number. These are individuals who accessed safety, dignity, medicine, shelter, and mobility because of community trust and solidarity. Through these partnerships, we are strengthening LGBTQI+ movements, advancing advocacy, and contributing to policy change led by the LGBTQI+ communities in their own local contexts.”

It is our network of donors who made this work possible last year. In this moment of global regression, supporting LGBTQI+ movement-building initiatives is the antidote we need. As we look ahead to 2026, we remain committed to sustaining our rapid response initiatives, protecting frontline movements, and ensuring that resources reach LGBTQI+ people facing the greatest risk when and where they are needed most.