Introduction
Late one humid evening in Rangpur, Bangladesh, the small office of a community group fell dark. The Noboprobhaat Foundation – a grassroots organization serving Bangladesh’s marginalized gender-diverse youth community – had just run out of funds. Its few remaining staff sat together in silence, absorbing the reality that their life-affirming programs might not survive the month. This scene is not unique. Across Bangladesh, numerous groups that support hijra, and other gender & sexual-diverse people are shutting down or scaling back, casualties of a perfect storm: an international funding drought and a hostile local environment. What began as global policy shifts – from the freezing of U.S. foreign aid to conservative backlashes in Europe – has trickled down to the back alleys of Rangpur, Sylhet, Chittagong and other grassroots district, where these vulnerable communities now find themselves with dwindling support. This article explores how worldwide funding cuts have crippled Bangladesh’s gender-diverse community organizations, weaving in the stories and struggles behind the stark statistics.
Global Funding Crisis and the Domino Effect
In early 2025, a wave of international funding cuts sent shockwaves through civil society organizations worldwide. The most jarring blow came when the United States abruptly froze and slashed its foreign aid programs under USAID. This sudden 90-day aid freeze under the new administration forced countless projects to halt overnight (context.news). A rapid survey by one advocacy network found that 75% of gender-diverse organizations globally were thrust into life-threatening financial emergencies almost immediately, 70% had to shut down critical programs, and nearly half had to lay off staff (allout.org). Vital services – from HIV prevention and health care to legal aid for hate-crime victims – were thrown into chaos as grants were canceled mid-stream.
And it wasn’t just the U.S. retreating. A broader donor retreat unfolded in tandem. The Netherlands, historically the single largest government donor to gender-diverse causes, announced a staggering 70% cut to its development funding for human rights NGOs in late 2024 (context.news). Within months, other Western governments – including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belgium, and France – signaled reductions or suspensions of their gender and sexual diverse community aid programs (context.news). Estimates by a global philanthropy consortium indicated that over $100 million in funding for gender-diverse movements across the Global South and East was suddenly at risk, representing roughly a quarter of all such support previously available in these regions. This unprecedented rollback comes just as anti-rights movements and authoritarian governments are on the rise, creating what activists call a “perfect storm” of shrinking resources and growing need (context.news).
The ripple effects of this funding crisis have been devastating. Every week, grassroots organizations report being forced to close operations or cancel campaigns (context.news). Hard-won progress made over decades – in visibility, safety, and legal protections – is now imperiled. Globally, community safe houses have been shuttered and outreach programs erased; one international study noted cases where sudden budget cuts even led to the closure of shelters, abruptly leaving people without safe refuge (Outright International). In short, the global movement for gender and sexual minority rights has been left “less vibrant, smaller, and poorer, with [a] diminished ability to resist and document human rights violations” in the coming year (context.news). Nowhere is this bleak forecast felt more acutely than in countries like Bangladesh, where local support for the gender-diverse community is virtually non-existent.