Q&A: ORAM’s Insights on the Queer Forced Displacement Network

ORAM recently co-organized the Kenya consultation, one of five global consultations that helped shape the Queer Forced Displacement Network. The Network officially launched through a multistakeholder conference in Bangkok as a global effort to strengthen protection and create durable solutions for LGBTIQ people in forced displacement. 

ORAM’s Executive Director, Steve Roth, and East Africa Program Manager, Winfred Wangari, traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, for the launch, where Winfred was a featured panelist. In this Q&A, they reflect on findings from Kenya that reveal the urgent need for community-led, coordinated action — and why the voices of LGBTIQ displaced people must shape the systems designed to protect them.

Tell us about the Queer Forced Displacement Network. What is it, and why does it matter?

Steve: The Queer Forced Displacement Network is an emerging global network bringing together organizations, advocates, researchers, funders, humanitarian actors, and people with lived experience to strengthen protection and advance durable solutions for LGBTIQ people in forced displacement.

The network responds to a reality too often overlooked in both humanitarian and LGBTIQ spaces: LGBTIQ refugees and asylum seekers face distinct forms of violence, exclusion, and invisibility that existing systems are often not designed to address. Many experience persecution not only in their countries of origin but also within refugee systems, host communities, and humanitarian responses.

The network creates a space for coordinated action across sectors and regions, while centering the voices and leadership of displaced LGBTIQ people themselves. It also helps move this issue into a broader global conversation about refugee protection, human rights, and humanitarian accountability.

What role did you play in the Kenya consultation and the broader QFDN process?

Winfred: The Kenya consultation was co-organized by Rainbow Railroad in partnership with ORAM and held in Nairobi from October 14 – 15, 2025. ORAM supported the planning and implementation of the consultation, including outreach, logistics, and local community liaison support that helped shape the agenda and facilitation.

ORAM also helped bring together a broad and representative group of participants. The first day centered LGBTIQ forcibly displaced people, refugee-led organizations, civil society, and human rights defenders. The second day brought in diplomatic missions, UN agencies, and international humanitarian organizations, creating space for direct dialogue between community members and institutional actors.

The Kenya consultation fed into the broader QFDN process by helping identify shared priorities and recommendations for the network. Participants’ insights helped shape discussions about the network’s direction, structure, and next steps. At the founding conference in Bangkok from May 6 – 8, 2026, we joined partners in endorsing the Chao Phraya Multistakeholder Declaration, which affirms a commitment to closing protection gaps for LGBTIQ people in forced displacement.

What did the Kenya findings reveal about the realities facing LGBTIQ refugees and asylum seekers?

Winfred: The findings showed Kenya as a place of both safety and contradiction: a place where people fleeing SOGIESC-related persecution seek protection, only to encounter new forms of persecution, invisibility, and exclusion.

Participants described violence as structured, not isolated — embedded in everyday systems, institutions, refugee processes, public spaces, and social and economic life. Exclusion emerged as a recurring pattern shaped by both intentional discrimination and unconscious bias. In Kakuma, many LGBTIQ refugees described living with persistent insecurity, fear, and heightened protection risks as part of their daily lives.

The findings also reaffirmed the compounded barriers LGBTIQ refugees face in accessing documentation, services, and durable solutions. Delays and limited access to support leave many people navigating prolonged uncertainty while trying to stay safe within systems that are not always equipped to respond to their realities.

Finally, the consultation underscored the importance — and strain — of community-led protection. Refugee-led and community-based organizations are often the first and most trusted point of contact for newly arrived LGBTIQ asylum seekers. Yet they continue to operate with limited and unpredictable resources, while also facing exclusion from shaping the systems they help sustain and could help change.

What should the QFDN prioritize in its first phase to be meaningful?

Steve: One of the network’s most important first-phase priorities is building the organizational capacity and sustainability it needs to take root.

Leadership is now transitioning from Rainbow Railroad to volunteer co-chairs, reflecting the founding members’ commitment to a grassroots-led structure. But long-term success will require dedicated infrastructure, coordination capacity, and sustainable fundraising. To influence policy, protection systems, research, and funding priorities, the network needs a strong operational foundation.

The network is also launching at a difficult moment for LGBTIQ rights and refugee protection. Resources are shrinking across the humanitarian and LGBTIQ sectors, while political backlash against refugees, migrants, and displaced communities is growing. That makes coordination and collective advocacy even more important.

The network has an opportunity — and responsibility — to support community-led organizations, strengthen community leadership, and ensure LGBTIQ forced displacement does not become even more invisible within humanitarian systems. If it establishes itself as sustainable and genuinely collaborative, it can become an important platform for protection, accountability, and collective action.

What role can ORAM play within the network?

Steve: ORAM can continue to serve as a thought partner and contributing organization, particularly as one of the few international NGOs focused exclusively on LGBTIQ forced displacement through a global lens.

Our work with displaced LGBTIQ communities across East Africa, Europe, and Mexico — combined with our advocacy, research, and partnership experience — allows us to contribute practical insights into the challenges displaced LGBTIQ people face and effective responses.

One of ORAM’s most important contributions is supporting efforts to keep the network grounded in the realities, priorities, and leadership of queer refugees and asylum seekers themselves. Too often, systems are designed around displaced communities without meaningfully including them in shaping priorities and solutions. The network has an opportunity to do that differently.