ILGA World

Julia Ehrt, Executive Director

For me, being a SheDecides Champion means to champion the diversity of women, enhancing the visibility of trans women in feminist and sexual and reproductive health and rights contexts. At ILGA World, we are working hard to do justice to the breath and diversity of the LGBTI movement: our work stands on feminist principles such as bodily autonomy, the practice of questioning power — power of others as well as our own — and the right to be who we are and to love whom we love in dignity.

Crystal Hendricks

Programme Officer – Sex Characteristics

As an intersex queer woman leading ILGA World's work on sex characteristics, I am proud to advocate for the bodily autonomy, self-determination, and full inclusion of intersex people within sexual and reproductive health and rights. In a time when marginalised communities continue to face systemic injustice and erasure, becoming a SheDecides Champion is both an honour and a responsibility. This role aligns deeply with my commitment to advancing global justice and ensuring that intersex voices are centered in the fight for equality, dignity, and human rights.

Lily Dong Li Rosengard

Coordinator: Gender Identity and Gender Expression (interim)

As a queer, trans non-binary person leading ILGA World’s work on gender identity and expression, it’s an honour to be the first LGBTI institutional SheDecides Champion. At a time when our rights are under attack globally, and as Pride becomes increasingly corporate and divorced from its radical roots (Pride was a protest!), it is more important than ever to stand together - queer, trans and intersex feminists united - in defence of bodily autonomy, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and justice for all. As our black transcestor Marsha P. Johnson reminds us: “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us."

How we are working so SheDecides

ILGA World works to empower and collaborate with their global membership to:

Advocate for lesbian, bisexual, trans, and intersex women’s rights within broader feminist and human rights movements.
Champion LGBTI people’s rights globally by monitoring human rights violations, supporting local activism, and engaging with international bodies such as the United Nations.
Promote inclusive health care by addressing the unique health needs and disparities faced by LGBTI people.
Challenge anti-rights movements that seek to roll back progress on gender and sexual diversity, by building solidarity across movements and amplifying the voices of LGBTI people.

Creating a more inclusive international women’s rights mechanisms and instruments

Since its inception, ILGA World’s work on sex characteristics issues strived to provide strategic support to the intersex movement. In January 2024, Crystal Hendricks joined the team, strengthening our sex characteristics programme while making ILGA World more inclusive and even more rooted in the community, while also fortifying our relationships with allies. In 2024, ILGA World has supported actions around the historic intersex resolution at the United Nations, the Global Intersex Summit, the South African Intersex Forum, and OHCHR’s call for submissions on the human rights of intersex people.

Understanding sports as a human right

ILGA World’s Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sex Characteristics programme has addressed various issues that have directly impacted our communities. Since joining the team in 2023, Lily Dong Li Rosengard has closely collaborated on many of these critical issues, including sports. Sports have been a highly contentious arena for our communities, and the 2024 Olympics, alongside the US elections, has brought these debates to the forefront globally. For many years, ILGA World has worked closely with the Sports Rights Alliance, grassroots groups, and a range of allies to advocate for more inclusive sports.

Strategic partnerships and critical dialogues focusing on women’s rights

ILGA World’s senior leadership has consistently engaged in strategic dialogues with States, parliamentarians, UN mandate holders, and other key decision-makers to foster a more inclusive world for LGBTI people. Under Julia Ehrt’s proactive leadership, ILGA World has strengthened dialogues and actions with feminist and SRHR movements. She has been engaging in feminist and women’s rights spaces — including CSW, the 2023 Women Deliver conference, and the AWID Forum. Under her guidance, ILGA World joined and launched Kalavai, an initiative focusing on the interconnectedness of sexual and reproductive health, HIV, and LGBTI people’s rights rising from a long-standing relationship within the movement. Read more:

About ILGA World

ILGA World is a worldwide federation of more than 2,000 organisations from over 170 countries and territories campaigning for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people.

We want a world where the human rights of all are respected and where everyone can live in equality and freedom: a world where global justice and equity are assured and established regardless of people’s sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).

Established in 1978, ILGA World has ECOSOC consultative status at the United Nations.

Our members are based in our six regions: Pan Africa ILGA, ILGA Asia, ILGA-Europe, ILGALAC (Latin America and the Caribbean), ILGA-NAC (North America and the Caribbean), and ILGA Oceania.

Governed by an elected Board of 20 activists representing our global family, ILGA World is queer democracy in action!

WHENSHE DECIDES