The Australian Volunteers Program strives to provide a safe, supportive and equitable environment for LGBTQIA+ volunteers, approved accompanying dependents, partner organisations and all program staff. The Australian Volunteers Program has supported queer volunteers in all program countries and has ongoing connections with community organisations in many countries and regions in which the program operates.
This guide introduces a snapshot of the local context for queer and gender diverse people. LGBTQIA+ program participants must be aware of the country context before undertaking an assignment. If you are an LGBTQIA+ volunteer, you will need to:
- do your own research and understand what the local law says you can and can't do when in-country
- follow the local laws, even if you disagree with them
- be aware of the legal protections for LGBTQIA+ people in your destinations
- consider if you’re comfortable living and working in a place where you may not be able to live as openly as you can in some parts of Australia.
Language
Terminology may differ across urban and rural contexts, provinces or ethnic and cultural groups. Information sourced online can be outdated or inaccurate. For current and accurate information, please confirm with an appropriate civil society organisation (CSO) or ask your in-country team.
Legal and policy context
Same-sex sexual acts were decriminalised in Lesotho in 2012. However, disharmony between the country’s Penal Code and other legislation remains a concern. For example, the crime of ‘public indecency’ is vaguely defined, allowing it to be weaponised against LGBTQIA+ people. In a 2023 submission to the UN Human Rights Committee, a coalition of activists and legal experts called for the common law offence of sodomy to be formally repealed, rather than simply omitted.
Transgender Basotho are unable to amend sex markers on their identity documents, making it difficult for a transgender person to access healthcare. Using a passport that does not accurately reflect the holder’s gender expression can be a prosecutable offence. Under existing regulations, the state is obliged to ‘take reasonable practicable steps to ensure that personal information … is complete, accurate and updated where necessary’ – yet there are no procedures enabling legal gender recognition.
Chapter II of Lesotho’s constitution guarantees rights of justice, dignity, personal liberty and freedom of expression. The constitution also prohibits discrimination on several grounds, including ‘sex’ and ‘other status’. CSOs have called for LGBTQIA+ to be adopted as explicit categories of protection, thereby providing a legal foundation for full and meaningful equality. Currently, marriage, adoption and family rights are denied to LGBTQIA+ individuals. Gender-exclusionary policies linked to inheritance and property have been flagged as a barrier to equality for lesbian, bisexual and queer women and transgender men.
Discrimination
LGBTQIA+ rights are not mentioned within current anti-discrimination provisions, despite calls for robust legislation that safeguards LGBTQIA+ people, including those linked to labour, education and healthcare. Progressive law reform has been endorsed by leading judiciary figures, including Lesotho’s Chief Justice, Sakoane Sakoane, who has advocated for the ‘cultivation of an LGBTIQ-sensitive culture’.
Homophobic and transphobic attitudes are pervasive, especially in rural areas. This stems from limited exposure to and knowledge of LGBTQIA+ issues and leads to fears of stigma and rejection within the queer community.
LGBTQIA+ youth often face bullying at school, making it difficult for them to complete their education. LGBTQIA+ Basotho have also reported mistreatment when accessing services, attending social events, catching public transport or engaging in worship. Common forms of persecution include extortion, snide remarks, confidentiality breaches, inappropriate touching, denial of care, and physical or sexual violence. Though exceedingly rare, fatal hate crimes have occurred, including the murder of a gay man in May 2025.
LGBTQIA+ people face housing and employment insecurity. Those who do find employment may face workplace discrimination and may even be reprimanded or fired. These challenges are more acutely felt by transgender and gender-nonconforming Basotho, many of whom turn to sex work to survive. The criminalisation of sex work adds a further level of vulnerability.
One lesbian interviewee explained:
'I know of someone older, who lost their job as a soldier because they were female, wearing trousers and dating other women … Most of the LGBT people no longer work. This is because as soon as people take a notice of one’s sexuality, they begin to tell management about it.'
Prejudice among law enforcement, coupled with inadequate accountability and oversight, makes it difficult for LGBTQIA+ people to report crimes. At the same time, strategic engagements between civil society and the police are beginning to yield results.
Cultural and societal attitudes
Basotho society is generally conservative towards sex and sexuality. Most people adhere to a binary understanding of gender, underpinned by religious and/or cultural beliefs that reaffirm male dominance. Anti-LGBTQIA+ persecution, including ‘curative’ therapy and ‘corrective’ violence, is sometimes considered to be justified on religious or cultural grounds. This is despite traditional expressions of same-sex intimacy and gender diversity being well-documented, including long-term, socially sanctioned relationships between adult women, referred to as motsoalle friendships.
CSOs argue that the state has done little to tackle patriarchal and heteronormative values. More recently, concerns have been raised about the state’s commitment to and respect for human rights, given its increasingly restrictive stance towards political dissent.
However, attitudes are changing within some demographics. This shift has been driven by CSOs like the People’s Matrix Association, the Rainbow Alliance of Lesotho, and the Master of Healing Foundation. These organisations promote LGBTQIA+ rights through community outreach, sensitisation workshops and awareness-raising campaigns.
Since 2013, Pride marches have been held annually in the capital Maseru. Overall, the government of Lesotho has adopted a permissive stance towards LGBTQIA+ activism, allowing CSOs to register and operate without interference.
In March 2025, Lesotho was thrust into the international spotlight after US President Donald Trump alleged that local CSOs had received ‘eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI in the African nation of Lesotho’. Though blatantly untrue, in countries battling poverty and underdevelopment, any hint of ‘preferential treatment’ for LGBTQIA+ people can prompt a conservative backlash.
Health and wellbeing
Lesotho’s public healthcare system is under enormous strain. Many services and programs depend on international aid and are therefore aligned with donor priorities and/or objectives (e.g. combating TB, malnutrition and child mortality).
Lesotho continues to struggle with one of the world’s highest HIV prevalence rates, despite sustained efforts by the government and humanitarian agencies. Guiding the country’s HIV response is a national framework and roadmap, both of which recognise key populations who are disproportionately affected by HIV and face barriers to accessing treatment or prevention measures. Despite naming lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons as key populations for HIV prevention and services, the programming in practice only focuses on MSM and some transgender women.
Public clinics are associated with judgement, harassment, abuse and even refusal of service. Research suggests that LGBTQIA+ Basotho are unlikely to disclose their gender or sexual identities when accessing healthcare.
Transgender people are especially vulnerable to medical discrimination. Hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery are unavailable, forcing transgender Basotho to travel to South Africa for specialised services.
Entrenched prejudice, social isolation and strictly enforced gender roles contribute to high rates of anxiety and depression among LGBTQIA+ Basotho. A lack of accessible and affirming mental health services makes it very difficult for those in need to obtain appropriate support.
CSOs are working to combat social and structural barriers to healthcare by providing sensitisation training to frontline workers and sexual health, psychosocial wellbeing and peer-to-peer education services to beneficiaries. Because these activities are donor funded, they often replicate the models critiqued above, with gay men and transgender women receiving the bulk of attention. The future of such programs is in doubt since the US government slashed its USAID budget.
Media
There has been an improvement in the quality and the quantity of media coverage on LGBTQIA+ topics. However, some representations are superficial and stereotyped.
Radio has been a particularly useful tool for outreach, allowing CSOs to connect with rural or isolated communities. In addition to on-air interviews, LGBTQIA+ activists have participated in phone-ins and facilitated quizzes on terminology.
CSOs have cultivated relationships with trustworthy and supportive journalists to enable more factual, balanced and sensitive media coverage. CSOs like People’s Matrix Association and Sonke Gender Justice partner with the Media Institute of Southern Africa to train journalists on LGBTQIA+ issues.
CSOs use social media to publicise events and educate the wider community. LGBTQIA+ Basotho also use social media to build community and access resources. Conservative religious groups and those who hold anti-LGBTQIA+ views use traditional and social media to reinforce negative associations.
Research and contributions provided by John Marnell, African Centre for Migration and Society.
The Pride Guides were developed in 2022 and updated in 2025 by consultants and experts based in countries in which the program operates.
