Rainbow Railroad, in collaboration with partners around the world, is building a groundbreaking, global network to address the urgent needs of LGBTQI+ people facing forced displacement.
Queer Forced Displacement Initiative
What is the Queer Forced Displacement Initiative?
The Queer Forced Displacement Initiative (QFDI) is a project to co-create an international network on LGBTQI+ forced displacement — a critically needed long-term platform to coordinate efforts to advance protection and solutions for LGBTQI+ people in forced displacement.
The network will adopt a multi-stakeholder approach — engaging people with lived experience, grassroots LGBTQI+ organizations, academics, international organizations, and key government stakeholders — to collaborate on improving access to protection and durable solutions for forcibly displaced LGBTQI+ individuals and communities. In addition to generating lasting research and policy recommendations, the QFDI will provide a forum for relevant actors to proactively mobilize response efforts at the early onset of crises that affect LGBTQI+ communities.
As part of its wider multistakeholder approach, the network aims to center the experiences, expertise, and participation of people who are directly impacted by forced displacement, and to build on the critical work already being spearheaded by LGBTQI+ leaders, human rights defenders, and civil society organizations locally and regionally.
Ultimately, the QFDI aims to build a sustainable, coordinated global response to LGBTQI+ forced displacement, grounded in the broader movements for queer liberation and migrant justice around the world.
Why is this initiative important?
The QFDI emerges from the reality that LGBTQI+ migrants and refugees are uniquely vulnerable to violence, marginalization, and discrimination on their journeys to find safety. LGBTQI+ communities and individuals often experience direct persecution in countries of origin, in transit and host communities, while also facing systemic barriers in accessing humanitarian assistance or safe pathways, and exclusion and discrimination within existing protection systems. In the face of these complex conditions, LGBTQI+ people with lived experience, civil society organizations, international organizations and government actors from across the globe are generating creative strategies and solutions, reflective of the unique needs and perspectives of forcibly displaced people with diverse identities. And yet to date, there exists no sustained institutional space to capture and share this critical collective expertise to strengthen local, regional and global responses to these serious challenges.
The QFDI aims to bridge this critical gap and become a long-term institutional platform for generating collaborative, innovative protection solutions for LGBTQI+ communities in forced displacement. The urgent need for an organized global response to the challenges faced by forcibly displaced LGBTQI+ persons was highlighted during the 2021 Global Roundtable on Protection and Solutions for LGBTQI+ Persons in Forced Displacement, co-convened by the UNHCR and the Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, in which Rainbow Railroad was an active participant. This event produced 33 significant recommendations including calls for the creation of this muti-stakeholder network.
How are we building this network?
From 2024-2025, Rainbow Railroad is working to create the framework, design the core components and lay the foundation for the global network. Throughout this network creation phase, Rainbow Railroad is leading a series of global consultations and events with a range of different stakeholders, held in key Global South transit points for LGBTQI+ migrants. The purpose of these consultations is to better understand key themes and local priorities on LGBTQI+ forced displacement and have participants provide input on the central aspects of network design and operation. In partnership with LGBTQI+ civil society in each event location, Rainbow Railroad will facilitate the following collaborative spaces through to the end of 2025:
- Five two-day roundtables engaging civil society organizations, LGBTQI+ migrants and refugees, governments and humanitarian actors in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East;
- A two-day academic symposium to identify research gaps in the field of LGBTQI+ forced displacement, propose new areas for research coordination, and develop collaborative policy solutions;
- A final multi-stakeholder conference to bring together the diverse actors who engaged in the network creation process, summarize core findings from the consultations, and ratify a multi-stakeholder declaration to ground the network.
The network will officially launch at the end of 2025, after which it will be independently governed by a Secretariat and network members.
About the Crisis Response Fund
As a core component of the mandate to support and find solutions for LGBTQI+ persons who are impacted by forced displacement, the QFDI seeks to understand and mitigate the key forces driving queer forced displacement globally, which includes addressing the underlying crises, crackdowns and complex emergencies which produce and fuel the forced displacement of LGBTQI+ persons.
Embedded within the QFDI, the Crisis Response Fund will contribute towards this outcome, by offering low-barrier, flexible micro-grants to grassroots organizations responding to crises that disproportionately impact and cause the forced displacement of LGBTQ+ individuals and communities.
Click here to learn more about the Crisis Response Fund and how to apply.
How to get involved and support the QFDI
The initiative thrives on the collective action and collaborative engagement from various stakeholders committed to supporting forcibly displaced LGBTQI+ people. If you’d like to stay informed and get involved, please sign up here. Be sure to check this page regularly for updates including upcoming events.
Learn More
LGBTQI+ Forced Displacement: Building an International Network
Exploring Multilateralism for International Peace and Security and LGBTQI+ Crisis Response
Rainbow Railroad Queered the System at the Global Refugee Forum
Global Refugee Forum: LGBTQI+ and Allied Civil Society Statement
External Resources
ORAM Launches Comprehensive Guide to Support LGBTIQ Refugees in Mexico City
Information about Project Donors and Funding
The project is funded in part by contributions from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and Rainbow Railroad.
