Lucy Middleton

President Donald Trump's first year in office has been characterised by sweeping changes to international aid, human rights policies, immigration and U.S. governance at home and abroad.

He signed a record number of executive orders in his first 100 days, many of which targeted transgender and non-binary rights, access to gender-affirming care and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the United States.

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, U.S. 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.

State representative Vernetta Alston has had to watch fellow legislators in North Carolina pass two laws this year that adversely impact the LGBTQ+ community.

One law allows parents or caregivers to refuse a child's gender identity, and the other allows them to pull children from classes that discuss LGBTQ+ topics.

The U.S. Supreme Court will likely overturn the nation's decade-old ruling that legalised same-sex marriage unless significant changes are made to the court, Michigan's attorney general said.

The top court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, rejected a bid in November by Kim Davis, a former county official in Kentucky who was sued by a gay couple for refusing to issue marriage licences, to reconsider the Obergefell ruling, named for the lead plaintiff in the landmark 2015 decision.

When Karolina and Eglė exchanged rings in a ceremony in the neoclassical town hall in Lithuania's capital Vilnius in September, it was a moment they had dreamt about for more than a decade.

The couple became engaged two years into their 13-year relationship, but it wasn't until August 8 this year that their union was legally recognised, making them the first same-sex civil partnership in the Baltic nation and clearing the way for their September ceremony.

It has been a year of LGBTQ+ setbacks - with rights vanishing, funding slashed and hostility on the rise.

But LGBTQ+ activists point to pockets of progress, too - be it on gay marriage, trans rights or protection from hate crime.

Samuel has moved countries twice in three years in search of safety - each journey a flight from the discrimination and violence often meted out to LGBTQ+ people in East Africa.

And now the 28-year-old Ugandan is being pushed to move on again - only this time he is running out of faith in escape routes after swinging aid cuts ended the support that has so far kept him safe.

An LGBTQ+ activist, detained in August by Turkish authorities and now released pending trial, has? urged the European Union to take action against his country's crackdown on civil rights, warning Turkey is following the path of Russia.

Enes Hocaoğulları, a 23-year-old youth delegate to the Council of Europe, was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention for 35 days after he arrived at Ankara Esenboğa Airport from France on Aug. 5.

Turkey's LGBTQ+ community is bracing for the passage of a bill that would criminalise gender-diverse or sexual minority identities, censor advocating for rights and restrict the process for changing legal gender.

Advocates and activists say the proposed law constitutes a "grave threat" to LGBTQ+ people, who are already facing increased scrutiny after the government declared 2025 the "Year of the Family".

U.S. President Donald Trump's foreign aid cuts are making life more dangerous for LGBTQ+ people in Uganda, one of most prominent gay activists in the East African country said.

In 2023, Uganda toughened its colonial-era law criminalising same-sex relations with new legislation that included the death penalty for what it calls serial offenders and a 20-year prison sentence for the "promotion of homosexuality".