Powers of Good: Who Is Still Standing Up for LGBTQ+ Africans in 2026

Across Africa, LGBTQ+ people and the groups that stand with them keep working under laws that can send them to prison. In Uganda, the law also carries the death penalty for what it calls “aggravated homosexuality”. This article profiles groups and people doing that work in 2026, with a focus on East Africa.

Some are training young leaders. Others run shelters, churches, film studios and court cases. All of them take on real personal risk, and many are doing it with less money than they had a year ago. They are not waiting for permission to build a fairer future.

Uganda: a church that moved online rather than close

Aggie Dennett Harmon, a Ugandan trans pastor, was one of five people given an International Pride Award by UNDP and ILGA World at WorldPride Amsterdam in August 2026.

In 2020 she and two other trans women set up Talented Youth Community Fellowship Uganda (TAYCOF), a Kampala-based interfaith ministry for LGBTIQ+ Ugandans. As well as services, it ran a shelter for homeless gay, bisexual and trans women, and offered mental health support, Bible study, sport, HIV testing and medical referrals. Harmon also founded the Nange Healing and Harm Reduction Center, a safe space for trans people and people who use drugs.

After the Anti-Homosexuality Act passed in 2023, the church could no longer meet in person. Services moved online. Data costs keep some people away, but the move has widened its reach: up to 100 people now join from across Uganda and Kenya. Harmon has said the services help her with her own trauma and fear, because the congregation stands with her.

Uganda: the campaign that freed Wendy and Diana

In February 2026, Wendy Faith and Alesi Diana Denise were arrested in Arua City for allegedly kissing in public. They were charged under the Anti-Homosexuality Act with an offence carrying up to life in prison, even though the Act does not mention kissing. They were bailed, re-arrested hours later, refused bail in March and held until April.

In July the Director of Public Prosecutions discontinued all charges. Activist Frank Mugisha announced the news. Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) thanked everyone who had spoken up. Hans Senfuma had run a long social media campaign for their release, and Kuchu Times Media Group said the result showed that collective pressure works.

The risk did not end with the case. A local politician publicly warned that the two women would be arrested again, and supporters were still raising money to move them somewhere safe.

Uganda: answering hate in public

On 23 September 2026, during the UN General Assembly, Uganda’s health minister Chris Baryomunsi posted that homosexuality “is not African” and that it is behaviour Ugandans detest. Several people answered him openly, knowing the cost of doing so in Uganda.

• Fox Odoi-Onywelowo, a former MP and the only high-profile ruling-party figure to vote against the 2023 Act, replied that homophobia, not homosexuality, is what is un-African.
• Shibolo Awali Sean of The Robust Initiative for Promoting Human Rights (Triumph Uganda) called the post illogical.
• Ssebandeke Dullaart, founder of the Etunganun Impact Initiative, asked how people the minister says he detests can expect fair treatment in a clinic.

This matters because the space to speak has narrowed. A 2026 CMI brief found that many Ugandan activists have gone back into hiding, left the country or fallen silent, and that leading activists have been threatened.

Kenya: a ten-year case for the right to be recognised

On 20 May 2026, Kenya’s High Court ruled that refusing to change the gender marker on a trans person’s official documents breaches the Constitution. It ordered agencies, including the Registrar of Births and Deaths, to start accepting applications within 60 days.

The case grew from claims going back more than a decade by Audrey Mbugua, who heads Transgender Education and Advocacy (TEA). In 2014 she won the right to have her name changed and her gender marker removed from her school certificates. She has kept going to court since.

The practical stakes are high. The East Africa Trans Health & Advocacy Network has reported that 32% of trans people in Kenya have been denied healthcare because of who they are. Outright International has said that local groups now need funding to make sure the ruling is put into practice.

Kenya: safe houses taking in more people than they have room for

Many LGBTQ+ refugees in Kenya, including Ugandans who fled the 2023 Act, live in Kakuma refugee camp. When aid cuts in 2025 brought food rations there to their lowest recorded levels, queer refugees reported going hungry and being attacked. Small, mostly refugee-led groups in Nairobi took them in, as reported in November 2025.

Tanzania: working under watch

Tanzania criminalises same-sex relations, and activists there were directly targeted around the October 2025 elections. According to a report shared with Outright International, police visited three LGBTIQ organisations, 13 defenders were put under surveillance in four cities, and five were briefly detained without evidence.

LGBT Voice Tanzania, founded in Dar es Salaam in 2009, has kept working through this. It supports and defends LGBTQ+ Tanzanians and raises funds openly online. Its project report for April to July 2026 says 120 LGBTQ+ people found safety and support through its work.

Across East Africa: training activists to win online

The African Queer Youth Initiative (AQYI), based in Kenya, is a youth-led network working with LGBTQ+ young people from Nairobi to Kampala, Lagos and Accra. With the campaign group All Out, it ran a week of Fueling Digital Activism training for young East African activists from 15 to 19 June 2026.

The aim is a network of young campaigners across the region who can run digital campaigns safely. AQYI says opponents of LGBTQ+ rights are well funded and use online platforms to spread hate, so its programme covers campaign building, fundraising, media work, digital security and mental health. It has run the same training in Southern Africa.

Ghana: training the next generation of leaders

Ghana’s parliament passed an anti-LGBTQ bill on 29 May 2026. It has not been signed into law, and MPs have been discussing whether to make its punishments harsher. In that climate, Rightify Ghana held three days of training in Kumasi for 33 queer youth leaders from across the country, chosen from more than 200 applicants.

It was the group’s 14th workshop of 2026, under its Peace and Democracy Champions initiative. Participants worked on public speaking, media interviews, political participation and debate, and each was linked to a mentor. Rightify Ghana plans further sessions in Ho, Accra and Cape Coast on digital security, online safety and countering misinformation.

Nigeria: telling queer stories on screen

Living in Colors, from Prism House Studio, follows five young queer flatmates in Lagos. It was produced by Manuel Ruben and directed by Tega Idogho. Ahead of its planned YouTube release on 30 August 2026, Nigeria’s film censors moved to block its Lagos premiere, cited the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, and announced legal action against the producers and promoters.

The team did not drop the project. In late September, Erasing 76 Crimes reported that the series had returned to YouTube despite the threats. It follows earlier work by groups such as The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERs), whose YouTube series She, He, They set out to challenge stereotypes in Nigerian media.

What it costs, and how to stand with them

This work is getting harder to fund. The CMI brief notes that US funding and political support for Ugandan activists has been cut, leaving them more exposed. Outright International describes the cuts to LGBTIQ groups worldwide as unprecedented.

There are practical ways to help:

• Give directly. Small, local groups such as LGBT Voice Tanzania and the Nairobi safe houses depend on individual donors.
• Share their work, carefully. Link to the groups’ own channels. Do not share names, faces or locations that people have not made public themselves.
• Speak up where it counts. The Wendy and Diana case showed that sustained public attention can change an outcome.

Every group in this article has chosen to keep going when stopping would be safer. Umoja means unity. These are the people it describes.

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