# Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights ![People gathered together, hanging on stoplights and sitting on amplifiers, waving pride flags with joy.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-07/cluster-lgbtqi-human-rights-unsplash.jpg?itok=7h2ZPePn) *Credit:* [*Simon Kessler via Unsplash*](https://unsplash.com/photos/a-group-of-people-standing-on-top-of-a-street-C76sMdhNqbU)**This research cluster is designed to help strengthen and scale the work of the recently launched** [**Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program**](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr-ryan/programs/global-lgbtqi-human-rights)**, housed at the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School.** LGBTQI+ human rights have become a canary in the coal mine for broader authoritarian projects. The deliberate targeting of LGBTQI+ communities—through draconian legal and legislative action, disinformation campaigns, and dehumanizing political rhetoric—is part of an increasingly coordinated and well-resourced transnational strategy to polarize societies, weaken democratic infrastructures and institutions, and expand illiberal influences. This research cluster examines the transnational networks and political strategies that weaponize LGBTQI+ people and their rights as a central tool in the global backlash against democracy and human rights. We bring together leading human rights scholars, policymakers, civil society practitioners, and grassroots activists to analyze and respond to the expanding and accelerating influence of anti-LGBTQI+ movements in global politics. Our cluster examines the interplay of state and nonstate actors—Putin’s Russia, Orbán’s Hungary, Museveni’s Uganda, the World Congress of Families, the Alliance Defending Freedom International, and others—as leading drivers of this recent global backlash. We analyze these dynamics across five key concerns: 1. **Anti-democracy movements and democratic resiliency**: How are LGBTQI+ peoples and their rights weaponized to fuel polarization and erode democratic norms and human rights protections, and how effective are these efforts? 2. **National security implications**: What role do state and nonstate actors play in spreading LGBTQI+ disinformation to foment social and political instability? 3. **Social consequences and policy interventions**: What are the lived realities of LGBTQI+ communities targeted by these campaigns and what policy frameworks and interventions do we need to develop to counteract them? 4. **Exploring the role of the United Nations in furthering accountability for LGBTQI+ violence and discrimination**: This line of inquiry focuses on how UN mechanisms beyond the established Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity contribute to advancing LGBTQI+ rights globally. It includes examining the roles of special rapporteurs and other standing bodies across the UN system that intersect with LGBTQI+ issues, and how their work can be leveraged more effectively. 5. **Examining the role of foreign policy in advancing LGBTQI+ rights**: This area looks at how foreign policy, particularly from the United States, has affirmed LGBTQI+ rights and worked to protect individuals from violence. It also considers the role of special envoys for LGBTQI+ rights appointed by various governments—exploring their strategies, coordination, and potential as a model for global influence and collaboration. Our cluster convenes leading human rights scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and activists to produce cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, data-informed policy recommendations, and new public engagement and culture change strategies. By drawing on expertise from across Harvard University and beyond, our cluster aims to create a new intellectual and policy framework for understanding and countering the rising transnational backlash against LGBTQI+ human rights and democracy. This work could not be more timely and urgent. home ### Contact **Max Calleo** language [### Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program ](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr-ryan/programs/global-lgbtqi-human-rights)Visit the website for the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, Harvard Kennedy School account\_balance [### Funding ](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/funding/faculty/weatherhead-research-clusters)Learn more about funding opportunities for Weatherhead Research Clusters ## Administration The Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights is chaired by Professors Mathias Risse and Timothy Patrick McCarthy. Max Calleo is the cluster administrator. [### Mathias Risse ](/people/mathias-risse) [mathias\_risse@harvard.edu](mailto:mathias_risse@harvard.edu)Faculty Associate; Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights. Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights, Global Affairs and Philosophy; Director, Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, Harvard Kennedy School. **Research interests:** Global justice; questions at the intersection of political philosophy, economic theory, and political science; ethics and public policy; philosophical aspects of globalization; group rationality; and social choice theory. ![Headshot of Mathias Risse.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-08/risse-mathias.png?h=724082a5&itok=WjsTR4hC) [### Timothy McCarthy ](/people/timothy-mccarthy)Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights. Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Faculty Chair, Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program, Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, Harvard Kennedy School. **Research interests**: History, culture, and politics of the United States; social movements and protest traditions; gender and sexuality/LGBTQ+ studies; African American and ethnic studies; human rights; leadership and communication; diversity, equity, and... ![Headshot of Timothy McCarthy.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-08/mccarthy-timothy.png?h=cc707dbc&itok=HMtycrrG) [### Maximillian N. Calleo ](/people/maximillian-n-calleo) Project Coordinator, Weatherhead Research Clusters on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion and on Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights; Faculty Assistant to Professors Christina L. Davis and Kosuke Imai. ![Max Calleo.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-06/calleo_max.jpg?h=114238d8&itok=vGeBHWSu) --- ## All Weatherhead Research Clusters Born out of a need to complement the Center’s traditional focus of supporting individual faculty and student research, our Weatherhead Research Clusters revolve around hefty questions for the social sciences and the world. These research clusters represent core faculty interests, and aim to make a significant contribution by pushing the frontier of knowledge in their respective fields. Open all sections Close all sections ### Business and Government expand\_more When business is not part of the solution, it is frequently part of the problem. By better understanding the political economy of business-government relations in the contemporary world, we hope to provide new insights into how business influence can be a positive force for democracy and development. Our work thus focuses on several broad problems: strategies of business influence; firm responses to deglobalization; the politics of deindustrialization; and concentration, regulation, and technology. We aim to address these themes by bringing together a multidisciplinary group of scholars at all career stages to reexamine and revitalize the study of business and politics. [Learn more about the business and government research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/22-business-and-government) ### Comparative Inequality and Inclusion expand\_more How do we extend cultural membership to the greatest number in society? Gain a better understanding of the social and cultural processes behind recognition gaps? Determine how social scientists and policy makers can better respond to help make societies more inclusive? By bringing together academics from a variety of disciplines and institutions, the cluster fosters a research community that seeks to build up the systemic theory around inequality and recognition gaps and create sustained opportunities for cross-pollination of ideas. Cluster affiliates have studied a wide range of topics—including racism, xenophobia, homophobia, immigration, destigmatization, incorporation, citizenship, indigeneity, and more—across various national and transnational contexts. [Learn more about the comparative inequality and inclusion research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/comparative-inequality-and-inclusion) ### Global Climate Policy expand\_more Addressing climate change requires global collective action, underpinned by international institutions, frameworks, and policies. However, current climate action is moving too slowly—due to unwieldy policy structures and obstacles presented by multipronged core missions, among other reasons. This research cluster aims to accelerate the pace and scale of climate action by identifying and developing new global policy initiatives that address the challenges at hand. We leverage experts across many fields at Harvard and MIT to generate policy ideas, galvanize action, and engage students and alumni toward a deeper understanding of international climate coordination. [Learn more about the global climate policy research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/25-global-climate-policy) ### Global History expand\_more Global history is one of the leading new approaches in recent years that has helped to transform the study of the past. The contemporary trends summarized under the term “globalization” have lent urgency to research that examines historical processes, networks, identities, and events across the boundaries of the nation-states that traditionally served as the privileged framework for much of the discipline. Historians worldwide have contributed to exciting research on the trends that so many societies have undergone together. In the process, global history has drawn on the expertise of political scientists, sociologists, art historians, economists, anthropologists, and others. This research cluster was designed to build on and focus its faculty leadership in new directions for international study. [Learn more about the global history research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead_initiative/11_global_history) ### Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights expand\_more The deliberate targeting of LGBTQI+ communities is part of an increasingly coordinated and well-resourced transnational strategy to polarize societies, weaken democratic institutions, and expand illiberal influences. This rising transnational threat is in many respects a reactionary backlash against hard-earned advances won by and for LGBTQI+ people over the last generation. This research cluster examines the interplay of state and nonstate actors as leading drivers of this global backlash against democracy and human rights. We convene leading human rights scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and activists to produce cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, data-informed policy recommendations, and new public engagement and culture change strategies to promote the safety and security—and protect and advance the human rights—of LGBTQI+ people worldwide. [Learn more about the global LGBTQI+ human rights research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/25-global-lgbtqi-human-rights) ### Identity and Conflict expand\_more Ethnic and sectarian conflict are on the rise across the world—or at least show few signs of abatement—making it urgent to understand why some communities develop norms and practices of toleration, achieve reconciliation, or resist the politicization of these identities. When intergroup tensions have ratcheted up, is it possible to mitigate the impact? Can a shared civic identity be (re)constructed in the wake of violence waged in the name of nationalism, ethnicity, or religion? This research cluster explores ways to improve intergroup relations in postconflict countries by bringing together a worldwide network of scholars that will draw on evidence from diverse global regions. [Learn more about the identity and conflict research cluster >](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/weatherhead-clusters/22-identity-politics) --- See also:- [ Research Clusters ](/content-types/research-clusters) - [ Current Research Clusters ](/content-types/current-research-clusters)