The LesbianGlobal Economic Empowerment Fund at Outright puts resources directly in the hands of LBQ+ women-led projects that build livelihoods, expand economic inclusion, and dismantle the barriers that keep LBQ+ women out of economic life. Your gift grows the fund.
Supported by LesbianGlobal’s Economic Empowerment Fund, established with Outright International as intermediary.
The LBQ+ Women’s Economic Empowerment Program is funded through the LesbianGlobal Economic Empowerment Fund at Outright. Since April 2026, it has supported 13 LBQ+ women-led organizations in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean to build livelihoods and economic inclusion.
It combines direct grants with optional technical assistance, and it responds to a simple reality: for many LBQ+ women, a dependable livelihood is what makes safety, autonomy, and visibility possible at all.
The program sits at the intersection of two bodies of Outright’s work: our Global LBQ Program, which supports LBQ communities through advocacy, research, grantmaking, and leadership development, and our Build–Earn–Thrive Initiative, which works to build economies in which LGBTIQ people can seek fair work, take entrepreneurial initiative, and build economic independence.
LBQ+ initiatives are underresourced, even as stigma, hostile legal environments, and exclusion from financial systems shape LBQ+ women’s economic lives.
We provide financial support to LBQ+ women-led organizations, groups, and collectives, paired with technical assistance on visibility, storytelling, and the use of digital tools.
LBQ+ communities develop sustainable livelihoods that reduce economic vulnerability and provide scope for LBQ+ women to drive their own and their communities’ economic futures.
At Outright, LBQ+ means lesbian, bisexual, and queer women, including cisgender, transgender, and intersex women, and non-binary and gender-diverse people who identify with LBQ experiences and communities. We use it to find common ground, not to draw boundaries, knowing that language keeps evolving and that people around the world name themselves in different ways.
Economic exclusion is one of the most persistent and complex challenges facing LBQ+ women. Cultural norms, discriminatory laws, and social infantilization continue to shape the economic realities of LBQ+ communities worldwide.
Economic empowerment is not simply about income generation. When economic independence is limited, many LBQ+ women are forced to depend on family members or partners who may not accept their identities, increasing exposure to control, coercion, and violence. Economic vulnerability complicates a woman’s ability to leave an abusive situation. In this sense, economic empowerment is a route to safety, autonomy, and the ability to make decisions about one’s own life.
Visibility without resources often leaves our communities vulnerable. Economic power is safety. Economic power is choice. Economic power is dignity.
LesbianGlobal, Beyond Visibility: Resourcing the Economic Power of LBQ+ Women
Outright International and LesbianGlobal launched the LBQ+ Women’s Economic Empowerment Program in December 2025, issuing an invitation-only call for proposals to LBQ+ women-led organizations in the Global South and East, reaching 150 alumnae of the LBQ Connect program. The call sought movement-led projects advancing economic inclusion and livelihoods through entrepreneurship development, financial inclusion, skills development, and advocacy with institutions, with two grant tiers and optional technical assistance on digital tools to amplify grantees’ visibility and impact.
The response received by 70 applicants confirmed both the urgency of the issue and how much LBQ+ organizations are already doing about it.
Proposals received in response to the call
Countries represented among applicants
Partner organizations welcomed into the program in April 2026
70 organizations applied. The fund could support 13.Help fund more LBQ+ women-led projects.
Support this workOutright supports partners, including registered and non-legally registered groups and organizations, through a model that pairs funding with technical support.
Invitation-only call for proposals opens, reaching 150 LBQ Connect alumnae and partner organizations across the Global South and East.
Information session and application deadline. 70 proposals received from 39 countries.
Selected partners notified following review against the program’s eligibility and priority criteria.
13 partner organizations welcomed into the program and projects begin, with technical assistance offered alongside grants.
Partners are implementing their projects, with check-in meetings and support from Outright and LesbianGlobal.
Projects conclude.
The December 2025 call was by invitation only and is no longer accepting applications. For questions about the program, or to hear about future opportunities, contact the program team.
LesbianGlobal Economic Empowerment Fund at Outright
LesbianGlobal established the LesbianGlobal Economic Empowerment Fund to move resources directly to LBQ+ women whose leadership is already transforming their communities, often under extreme risk and with little support. Doing that at a global scale required an experienced intermediary. The fund is housed at Outright, which brings the grantmaking infrastructure, movement relationships, and safety practice to reach LBQ+ leaders and social enterprises across the Global South and East.
The partnership took on new urgency after the abrupt termination of U.S. government funding for LGBTIQ human rights and inclusive development at the start of 2025, documented in Outright’s report Defunding Freedom. As external funding grew scarce, economic autonomy became more essential.
The program builds directly on lessons from earlier work. The recurring lesson: building economic autonomy means supporting the whole person, pairing financial investment with technical assistance, safe spaces, and community.
Thirteen LBQ+ women-led organizations in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean are running projects through the fund, from a traveling trades school for Indigenous and rural women in Michoacán, Mexico, to a revolving microloan scheme for LBQ+ entrepreneurs. Some partners work in contexts where being named would put them at risk, so we describe their work without their name or country.
School of Trades and Skills for Indigenous and Rural LBQ+ Women
A traveling, peer-to-peer school teaching sustainable trades, agroecology, and eco-construction to LBQ+ peasant, Indigenous, and rural women in the P’urhépecha region of Michoacán.
Follow on InstagramRuta LBQTNB: a formalizarnos y sin miedo al éxito
Supports 10 businesses led by LBQTNB migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people in the Bogotá metropolitan region to formalize, access finance, and grow.
Visit websiteGallinas, Cuerpos y Futuro
Strengthens the economic and bodily autonomy of LBQ+ women in the south and east of the country through popular and technical education.
Follow on FacebookGrowing the LBQ+ Eco Corps
An LBQ+-led regenerative agriculture and permaculture initiative that trains participants and builds a sustainable green business producing chemical-free food.
Visit websiteBeyond Forced Marriages: Building Economic Independence for LBQ+ Women
Helps 15 LBQ+ women in Port Harcourt and nearby areas move into income-generating work through training, mentorship, and startup support.
Visit websiteTujenge Community
Transitions graduates of its automotive mechanics, carpentry, and graphic design training into sustainable livelihoods with mentorship and financial training.
Visit websiteFrom Care to Income
Supports LBQ+ parents in Mombasa to turn unpaid care work into dignified income through skills training and a Queer Parenting Cooperative.
Follow on InstagramYê bo yokoun (solidaires)
Combines digital entrepreneurship, legal knowledge on labor and commercial rights, practical furniture-making, and psychosocial support for LBTIQ+ women.
Follow on InstagramMalembe-Malembe
Trains 70 rural and peri-urban LGBTQ+ women in Benguela in cutting, sewing, and textile production, with financial management and marketing skills.
Visit websitePartners working under protection
These partners work where visibility can put people at risk. We share what they do, never where they are.
Strengthening LBQ+ Entrepreneurs’ Economic Resilience
A second cohort of 30 LBQ+ women entrepreneurs receives business training, personal mentorship, and access to a revolving microloan scheme.
Supports young LBQ+ women in a highly restrictive context with market-relevant skills, mentorship, and startup capital for safe, low-visibility income activities.
Builds on a village savings and loan association to help marginalized LBQ women develop business ideas and strengthen collective economic mechanisms.
Generates LBQ-led economic evidence and pushes for institutional reform so LBQ women are no longer invisible in women’s economic empowerment programs.
It is a fund LesbianGlobal established and housed at Outright International to resource LBQ+ women-led projects that build economic independence in the Global South and East. Outright acts as the intermediary: it selects partners and supports them with grants, technical assistance, and safety practice.
LesbianGlobal is a U.S.-based organization focused on the economic power of LBQ+ women in the Global South. It raised the capital for the fund and chose Outright to manage it. Learn more at lesbianglobal.org.
When LBQ+ women cannot earn their own income, many depend on family members or partners who may not accept them, which increases the risk of control, coercion, and violence. A dependable livelihood makes safety, autonomy, and visibility possible.
The first round supports 13 partner organizations in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, selected from 70 proposals from 39 countries.
Not at the moment. The first call, in December 2025, was by invitation only and is now closed. Contact the program team to hear about future opportunities.
Give through the fund’s dedicated donation form. Your gift goes to the LesbianGlobal Economic Empowerment Fund at Outright.
Outright International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so gifts are tax-deductible in the United States to the extent allowed by law.
LBQ+ communities remain among the most under-resourced in the LGBTIQ movement. Your gift to the LesbianGlobal Economic Empowerment Fund at Outright moves funding directly to the LBQ+ women whose leadership is already changing their communities. LesbianGlobal raised the capital to start this fund. Join them in growing it.
Supported by LesbianGlobal’s Economic Empowerment Fund, established with Outright International as intermediary.