Today is IDAHOBIT and communities across the globe are coming together to reaffirm the dignity, freedom, and humanity of LGBTIQ+ people. It is a day to reflect, resist, and reimagine a world where everyone regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, or expression, can live safely and freely.
As a daughter of this continent and a proud trans woman, I honour the unyielding spirit
and radical hope of trans and gender-diverse communities across this Africa and around
the world. I also stand shoulder to shoulder with the wider LGBTIQ+ community, united in
our struggle for equality and liberation. We face interconnected challenges; from stigma
and violence to shrinking civic space and state-sanctioned discrimination, and we share
in each other’s resistance and triumphs.
This year’s theme,“The Power of Communities,” resonates deeply with our lived realities.
It highlights the strength, resilience, and radical hope that emerge when we organise together. From the grassroots to the global, our power lies in solidarity and in the relationships we build, the stories we share, and the futures we dare to dream.
As we celebrate this power, let us remember: trans people have always been part of our African communities. Across Africa and the world, trans and gender-diverse people have existed and thrived from time immemorial. We are not new. We are not foreign. We are not a trend. We are your siblings, your neighbours, your elders. We are, and have always been, your community.
But today, our lives are under attack. A rising and well-funded anti-gender movement is targeting LGBTIQ+ communities across the world. From the Trump-era Executive Orders in the U.S. that dismantled protections for trans people, to the UK’s harmful new policies that restrict healthcare and recognition, to the export of hate through coordinated conferences like the so-called “Pan-African Conference on Family Values” happening this week in Nairobi; our dignity is being politicised, criminalised, and erased.
But, these regressive efforts are not grounded in African values, they are imported ideologies masquerading as culture. The organisations funding and fuelling them have deep ties to global far-right networks, many of whom have been directly linked to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the continent. Their agenda is clear: to silence us, criminalise us, and divide our communities.
But we will not be silenced. We know who we are. We know where we come from. And we know that Ubuntu teaches us to centre humanity first, not exclusion. Hate is not an African value. Community is.
At the African Trans Network, we see this power every day. In our members. In our partners. In our people. We see it in the ways trans communities continue to build, to love, to heal, to fight, and to thrive, often against the odds. So today, and every day, I call on all allies, organisations, governments, and institutions to stand with us, not just in words, but in action. Denounce hate. Fund our movements. Protect our lives. Celebrate our existence.
Trans rights are human rights. We are here. We have always been here. And we are not going anywhere. The power of communities is how we survive, and how we will win.
Brandy Akoth
Programme Officer
African Trans Network
