More than 1.5 billion people cast ballots across at least 89 countries during 2024, a year now dubbed the “super election year.” But a new report from Outright International warns that political campaigns came at a heavy price for LGBTQ+ communities worldwide. A record 85 percent of jurisdictions studied — 51 out of 61 — candidates leaned into anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric to rally votes. That included attacking so-called “gender ideology,” calling queer people “foreign agents,” and scapegoating LGBTQ+ lives to distract from failed policies.
Neela Ghoshal ( Neela- Gho-Shal), Senior Director of Law, Policy, and Research at Outright International, said, “The findings are a chilling indictment of the state of global democracy…Anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric is no longer a fringe issue; it is a central tool in the modern authoritarian playbook. When politicians attack their own citizens to win power, democracy itself is at risk.”
The report found that the world’s five largest democracies — India, the European Union, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil — all saw queer communities targeted. In the U.S., Donald Trump’s campaign spent over $212 million on anti-trans ads, aired most heavily during college sports games in battleground states. Activists point out this decision was made to target largely young straight men. Democrats weren’t blameless either, with some members blaming their losses on support for trans rights — despite surveys showing voters weren’t prioritizing those issues.
Similar stories emerged elsewhere. In the U.K., far-right Reform U.K. pledged to ban “transgender ideology” in schools. In Canada, conservative leaders promised to bar trans students from facilities matching their gender identity, while in New Brunswick, campaigns targeted chosen name and pronoun rights. And yet, the backlash sparked resilience. LGBTQ+ people around the globe refused to be silenced. In Bangladesh, queer communities played a pivotal role in the July Revolution, a student-led uprising that ousted the long-serving prime minister. In Türkiye, activists marched for Pride despite bans and police violence.
As Outright’s report concludes, “Queer communities mobilized not just for their own rights, but in solidarity with all marginalized groups — understanding that their fates were intertwined with the health of democracy itself.”
