By Kim Vance-Mubanga (Egale Canada) and Alexandria Bohémier
Twenty-five years after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda remains one of the most influential global frameworks for advancing inclusive peacebuilding, conflict prevention, and human security. It has fundamentally changed how governments, international organizations, and civil society think about the relationship between gender, conflict, and security. But as we reflect on the future of the WPS agenda, it is clear that significant gaps remain. This blog series, WPS Beyond the Binary, has demonstrated that while progress has been made in recognizing the experiences of women, young women, and girls in conflict and crisis settings, the realities of many 2SLGBTQI+ communities continue to be overlooked and excluded. Throughout this series, we have seen how discussions of gender within peace and security are still often shaped by binary and heteronormative assumptions that fail to capture the full diversity of people’s lived experiences. At a time when violence, discrimination, and exclusion targeting 2SLGBTQI+ communities are increasing in many parts of the world, these gaps are becoming harder to ignore.
The question becomes: Can the WPS agenda truly achieve its goals if it continues to leave some communities at the margins? Queer rights and protections are not solely human rights concerns; they are also deeply connected to questions of security, participation, resilience, and peace. When people are excluded from public life, targeted because of who they are, or denied opportunities to participate in decisions that affect their communities, these are not only human rights issues, but also peace and security issues. One of the greatest strengths of the WPS community has always been its ability to challenge narrow understandings of peace and security, encouraging us to think more broadly about who is affected by violence and insecurity. Yet as this blog series has highlighted, the WPS actors have yet to institutionalize these strengths for 2SLGBTQI+ people, including through mechanisms such as National Action Plans (NAPs).
Queering the WPS agenda means expanding our understanding of who experiences insecurity, how insecurity manifests, and what meaningful participation in peacebuilding looks like. It means asking whose voices are missing from our conversations and whose experiences have yet to be fully recognized. It also means acknowledging that 2SLGBTQI+ communities experience conflict, displacement, political violence, and structural insecurity in ways that are often overlooked within traditional approaches to peace and security. 2SLGBTQI+ communities are not simply groups in need of protection. Around the world, queer and trans activists, community leaders, and organizations are already leading efforts to build safer, more resilient, and more inclusive communities. However, their expertise and leadership remain underrepresented in many formal peace and security processes, a pattern that continues to limit progress towards fully achieving the WPS agenda’s potential. When we talk about the future of the WPS agenda, it is important to acknowledge that not only do significant gaps remain for the 2SLGBTQI+ community within the framework, but we are seeing alarming backsliding when it comes to protection.
Since 2023, Pride7 (P7), now a formal G7 engagement group comprising of global queer and trans activists and allies, has tried to address underrepresentation by embedding community-led efforts and grassroots 2SLGBTQI+ voices into global processes on WPS.1 In March of this year, P7 called on the G7 to take a clear stance and act in response to the United States’ unprecedented expansion of the Global Gag Rules. Now, in the latest and most radical expansion, the policy will apply to all non-military U.S. foreign assistance, impacting a broad range of new actors including foreign governments and multilateral organizations like UN agencies. Furthermore, it extends restrictions to activities that recognize the dignity and human rights of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex persons, or those that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in foreign assistance. The links between development assistance and weakened systems of peace and security are well-documented and understood by 2SLGBTQI+ communities. And who is to say that this approach could not be further expanded to military assistance?
Beyond underrepresentation, the work of activists and organizations to support peacebuilding is also directly targeted. As an example, in January 2026, Russia used its “undesirable” law to target ILGA World — a global federation of over 2,000 LGBTQI organizations from 170 countries and territories. First adopted in 2015, and then further expanded in 2021 and 2024, the law on “undesirable” organizations is one of the repressive tools Russian authorities have adopted. It has been used to silence all criticism of the government, including around the ongoing invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine, and incapacitate civil society. Widely criticized by UN commissions, committees, and experts, this law adds to the arsenal of provisions that, for over a decade, Russia has used to crack down on 2SLGBTQI+ activism, including labelling the “international LGBT movement” as extremist. These actions only widen the gaps that prevent 2SLGBTQI+ voices from meaningfully engaging in the WPS agenda.
The urgency of addressing these gaps has only grown in recent years. Around the world, 2SLGBTQI+ communities are facing increasing political and social backlash. Hard-won gains are being challenged through legislation, political rhetoric, and coordinated campaigns that seek to restrict rights, limit participation in public life, and undermine protections for gender and sexual diversity. Recent developments in Ghana offer a powerful example of why these issues must be understood as peace and security concerns. In May 2026, Ghana’s Parliament passed legislation that criminalized homosexuality and the promotion of LGBTQI+ activities. Ghana is one of the sixty-five countries that currently criminalize 2SLGBTQI+ people. While Ghana has a NAP on WPS, they are part of the over 90% of countries whose NAPs make no explicit reference to the 2SLGBTQI+ community. Without explicit reference in their NAP, security threats against the 2SLGBTQI+ community in Ghana are able to persist and increase, leaving 2SLGBTQI+ persons without protection that the WPS agenda could work to provide them. The situation in Ghana reflects a broader global trend in which gender and sexual diversity are increasingly politicized and framed as threats to national identity, social stability, or cultural values. Uganda offers another example of this gap. Despite being widely regarded as a global leader in WPS implementation, with a detailed NAP and strong monitoring framework, Uganda’s NAP also makes no mention of 2SLGBTQI+ people. Uganda criminalizes the 2SLGBTQI+ community and imposes the death penalty under its Anti-Homosexuality Act, which came into effect in 2023. How can the country be perceived as a leader in WPS when its implementation of one of the world’s harshest anti-2SLGBTQI+ laws is enabling significant security threats?
One of the communities most impacted by the escalation in anti-2SLGBTQI+ rhetoric is the trans community, which has become a central focus of political and legislative targeting. In March 2026, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security released a third Red Flag Alert for the U.S., related to the Trump Administration’s anti-trans initiatives, which have continued to expand nationwide. The anti-trans agenda has radicalized and continues to intensify, with 2025 being the sixth consecutive record-breaking year for the number of anti-trans bills considered across the country. The Administration has moved from identifying transgender people as a threat to the family and to the nation’s military prowess, to claiming that transgender people constitute a cosmic threat to the spiritual health of the nation and the greatest direct threat to U.S. national security in the world. This year, the United States has announced publicly that its national counter-terrorism activities will prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist. This followed a statement by the U.S. Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, celebrating the U.S. repealing the WPS Act, which the previous Trump Administration had adopted in 2017. These developments highlight why advancing 2SLGBTQI+ integration into the WPS agenda is essential, given the opportunities the framework offers to respond to existing and escalating security threats.
As we look ahead, we believe the question is no longer whether there is a place for 2SLGBTQI+ inclusion within the WPS agenda. The question is whether the international community is prepared to address the gaps that continue to prevent the agenda from reaching its full potential. The examples shared throughout the WPS Beyond the Binaries blog series has clearly demonstrated that the WPS agenda cannot succeed while an entire population remains structurally excluded. The insecurity faced by the 2SLGBTQI+ community must be seen as central to advancing peace and security, and the full and meaningful integration of 2SLGBTQI+ people into the WPS agenda must be treated as a crucial next step to ensure the agenda’s success over the next 25 years as we strive to move WPS beyond the binary.
- Pride 7 Communique for France 2026
“As of 2026, critical gaps are still visible in the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and calls, such as those from Women7, have echoed the lack of willingness from G7 members to identify the connection between conflict and gender inequities.
Affirm the right to refugee protection for those fleeing persecution, even among G7 countries, on the basis of SOGIESC and recognize the unique and overlapping vulnerabilities of LGBTQIA+ refugees during all points in the migration cycle of displacement and resettlement.
Call for urgent and renewed global attention to the numerous ongoing humanitarian crises, such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran. Additionally, according to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ICJ, hostilities and violence in Palestine are resulting in a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and suspected war crimes waged against civilian populations. We call on all G7 nations to reaffirm their commitment to upholding the human rights and dignity of all individuals in conflict-afflicted geographies and acknowledge that LGBTQIA+ people should be safe from all violence and never be used as justification for violence.
Call on G7 nations to enter the Hague Group to reaffirm the importance of international law, namely, to uphold decisions by the ICJ and the ICC.
Affirm G7 member states responsibility to not only be prepared to engage in the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in a more transformative manner but to also identify gaps that many members have regarding the impact of conflicts on LGBTQIA+ individuals, which have left behind many LGBTQIA+ individuals facing persecution in conflict and crises.” ↩︎
The views in this blog are those of the authors only and do not necessarily represent those of the WPSN-C or its membership.
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