Two South African prominent LGBTQ organizations have become the latest victims President Donald Trump’s executive order that froze most U.S. foreign aid that the U.S. Agency for International Development disbursed.

Prior to the executive order, USAID had been playing a pivotal role in enhancing the rights of the LGBTQ community in South Africa through financial incentives. Since the executive order, many LGBTQ organizations have been struggling to remain afloat and provide services.

OUT LGBT Well-being on March 31 announced the closure of its Engage Men’s Health program.

The program offered stigma-free HIV and related health services through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which USAID and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded.

“For over a decade, OUT has been privileged to receive support through PEPFAR. In recent years, we proudly became the first local community organization to successfully graduate to direct recipient status of this funding from USAID. We are deeply grateful to the American people for their years of support,” sand OUT LGBT Well-being Executive Director Dawie Nel. “However, we regret the sudden and devastating impact of this funding withdrawal, not just on us, but on the thousands of individuals whose health and well-being depended on these services.”

Nel said Engage Men’s Health had managed to help 2,000 men who have sex with men stay on life-saving antiretroviral therapy, and provided 4,000 others with PrEP to prevent HIV infection.

“With these services now ending, we fear that HIV will spread more rapidly and that many will struggle to access the care they need,” added Nel. “While this marks the end of Engage Men’s Health, OUT LGBT Well-being will remain open. In the coming months, we will refocus our work and explore new ways to continue serving our community.”

Motlatsi Mkalala, board chair of Access Chapter 2, said USAID’s dismantlement has caused irreparable damage, which prompted the organization to close some of its branches and layoff some of its employees.

“As of the 1st of April 2025, operations across our various offices in the provinces of the Eastern Cape, Free State, Northwest, and Mpumalanga ceased,” said Mkalala. “The limited services at the headquarters in Pretoria will continue to run, but by a very small team.”

Emma Louise Powell, a South African MP and the Democratic Alliance party’s national spokesperson on international relations and co-operation, said PEPFAR since 2003 has played a transformative role in South Africa’s fight against HIV/AIDS, saving millions of lives and bolstering the country’s public health infrastructure. Powell said the cuts will prove disastrous.

“Given the critical nature of this life saving treatment, both government departments and non-profit organizations dependent on PEPFAR and related USAID funding across South Africa need more time to prepare for any potential phase-out of long-standing HIV/AIDS resourcing,” said Powell. “We call upon the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and relevant policymakers to swiftly reinstate funding.”

Iranti spokesperson Mogau Makitla said Trump’s executive order is going to lead to the closure of many LGBTQ organizations. Makitla called upon the South African government to immediately step in and fill the funding void.

“South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS, whilst the government has made significant strides towards ending the pandemic, we anticipate that the closure of the aforementioned facilities will subsequently result in an increase in the spread of HIV/AIDS due to the decrease in management and mitigation services,” said Makitla. “Gender-affirming healthcare services, which have always been limited are also under threat as a result of the halt.”

A Russian tennis player who came out as a lesbian and publicly criticized her home country’s war against Ukraine has defected to Australia.

“My application for permanent residency has been accepted by the Australian government,” said Daria Kasatkina in an Instagram post on March 28. “Australia is a place I love, is incredibly welcoming and a place where I feel totally at home. I love being in Melbourne and look forward to making my home there. As part of this, I am proud to announce that I will be representing my new homeland, Australia, in my professional tennis career from this point on onwards.”

The Telegraph reported Kasatkina in 2023 said she left Russia because she did not feel safe “as a gay person who opposes the war.” Kasatkina’s partner is Natalia Zabiiako, a Russian Olympic figure skater who was born in Estonia.

“Obviously, there are parts of this decision that have not been easy,” said Kasatkina in her Instagram post. “I want to express my thanks and gratitude to my family, coaches, and everyone who has supported me throughout my tennis journey to date.”

“I will always have respect and fond appreciation for my roots, but I am thrilled to start this new chapter in my career and my life under the Australian flag,” she added.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Daria Kasatkina🐬 (@kasatkina)

Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Argentina and Uruguay through April 12.

Argentina has undergone significant changes in its economic and social policies since President Javier Milei’s inauguration in December 2023. These changes have had a significant impact on various sectors of society, especially retirees and the LGBTQ community.

Mercedes Caracciolo, a 79-year-old sociologist and lesbian activist, shared her experience with the Washington Blade on how the new measures have affected her quality of life.

“Since Milei’s arrival in government, which began with a brutal devaluation, I am more careful in my spending than I was before,” she said.

Although Caracciolo has additional income from rental properties, she recognizes the situation is much more critical for those who exclusively depend on a pension.

With more than 7 million people receiving pensions, many find themselves “scratching the poverty line” due to the loss of purchasing power. The libertarian government’s economic policies have drastically affected their welfare, leading to a wave of protests across the country.

The reduction of social programs and the lack of LGBTQ-specific public policies have deepened the difficulties that seniors already face. The loss of economic stability particularly affects those who have historically lived on the margins, with fewer job opportunities and limited access to a decent retirement. Many older LGBTQ people, who have spent their lives unable to form traditional families, now find themselves without a support network and with an increasingly less present State.

The advance of conservative discourses has also generated a climate of insecurity and fear.

“There is no more sense of security and stability in old age,” Graciela Balestra, a psychologist who is the president of Puerta Abierta a la Diversidad, the first home for LGBTQ seniors in Argentina, explained. “Many LGBTQ+ retirees fear that there are fewer and fewer rights. They see what is happening in Argentina and globally with the advance of the right wing, and they feel that what they worked so hard to achieve is in jeopardy.”

In addition to economic difficulties, the LGBTQ community has faced additional challenges.

Caracciolo noted many supportive spaces have had their government subsidies reduced or eliminated, weakening community networks essential to the well-being of LGBTQ seniors.

“Community networks are also weakened because many of them require state support for certain types of expenses,” she noted.

Balestra warned about the psychological impact.

“Obviously it impacted mental health. There is much more anxiety, there is fear. People who say ‘I’m afraid they’ll kill me’ or ‘I’m afraid to show myself,'” she said. “Before, they used to walk down the street holding hands with their partner, and now they don’t do it anymore. A lot of hopelessness.”

For Balestra, the concern goes beyond the LGBTQ community.

“The economic issue, the rights issue, the fear that something similar to the dictatorship will return. All of this is very scary. And besides, the hopelessness of believing that this is going to continue, that it is not going to change even in the next elections,” she said.

Civil society organizations have denounced an “adjustment” in policies related to gender and diversity that Milei’s government has undertaken. Pride marches in Argentina have become a stage for protests against the president’s policies, especially over his speeches that activists consider hateful towards the LGBTQ community.

Balestra stresses the fear is not only individual, but collective.

“Human rights no longer exist anywhere, women no longer have the place they used to have, they are once again objectified, machismo is on the rise again,” she said. “This brings a lot of despair to older people.”

Despite the climate of uncertainty, Balestra emphasizes resistence forces are still in force.

“We continue working, as always,” she said. “For 25 years at Puerta Abierta we have been doing reflection groups, cultural workshops, social meetings, all with respect to being able to make LGBT people aware of their rights. We never stop meeting, but lately we are talking more and more about these things that we had already left a little behind. The issue of coming out, fear, visibility. Now we have to talk about it again.”