By Melanie Nathan, July 04, 2026 I am reflecting on America’s 250th birthday. I came here in the mid-1980s from apartheid South Africa, leaving behind my twenties and hoping for a place where law and justice might finally occupy the same room. I had been a young, rookie attorney in Johannesburg, trying to make sense … More I Believed America
By Melanie Nathan Here are some posts that have appeared on my social media, my Substack pages. Posted June 27, 8.30 PM: Waiting for LGBTQI+ Leadership in San Francisco Bay Area to Condemn Antisemitism and the Jew-hate Attack on Sen. Weiner: :Disclosure: I am a former VP of the San Francisco Pride Board and also … More Unchecked Jew Hate Festers – The Hope for Statements
By Melanie Nathan, May 28, 2026. After years in the field, I now spend many of my days researching how to stop governments, mobs, police, prisons, and even families from destroying human beings. Then I open social media and strangers inform me that I am a monster because I am a Jew. Let us wind … More The Irony of Expert Research and the One Click Expert Hater
A Critical Reflection on Ghana’s New Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025 By Melanie Nathan, May 17, 2026 The reintroduction of Ghana’s Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025 represents one of the most sweeping attempts in modern Africa to criminalize not merely same-sex conduct, but identity itself, together with advocacy, association, … More Sovereignty, Culture, and Human Dignity: Ghana’s New Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill
By Melanie Nathan – December 21, 2025. This essay is a call to rethink how LGBTQI+ funding is allocated in this time of unprecedented crisis, and to ensure that survival, not visibility, is treated as the first obligation of global solidarity. It is a call for partnerships from foundations, funders, donors and LGBTQI+ organizations. A … More During Global Crisis Are U.S. LGBTQI+ Funding Priorities a Moral Failure
When Protection Is Denied to Asylum Seekers Before It Is Heard: Across the current U.S. asylum landscape, individuals fleeing persecution are increasingly being sent to countries with which they have no legal, social, or historical connection—places they have never lived, where they have no community, and where they cannot safely exist. For LGBTQI+ asylum seekers, … More Country Conditions Expert for Uganda – Pretermission, Third-Country Removal, Facing LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers
Nourishment Is Survival: Why Your Support Matters Now Across transit shelters, informal safe houses, and refugee camps in several African countries, LGBTQI+ refugees depend almost entirely on African Human Rights Coalition’s rations to survive. We do not have enough to continue past January 31, 2026. These refugees are forcibly displaced by criminalization, violence, and state-sponsored … More When Survival Becomes a Diet: The Reality of Daily Rations
By Melanie Nathan, Nov 11, 2025. I sat only feet away from Emily Damari as she spoke, her voice steady, her truth unflinching. I watched her courage, so raw, it pierced. And in that moment, I felt something shift inside me. I realized that for all my years of advocacy, all the times I’ve raised … More Courage After Emily
The Ripple Effects — From Kampala to Queens By Melanie Nathan, Country Conditions Expert on African LGBTQI+ Refugees and Executive Director, African Human Rights Coalition, written in my personal capacity. Silence can be a kind of betrayal — especially when the person staying silent is the one asking for our votes. When Uganda passed its … More More Than Just a Photograph: Why New York’s Queer Community Should Not Be Voting for Zohran Mamdani
By Melanie Nathan, Oct 24, 2025 When governments criminalize identity—whether via immigration policy or sexual orientation laws—they coerce people into the shadows to flee danger, yet the underground offers no safety at all—only a stopgap for immediate survival. Under Donald Trump’s immigration crackdowns, thousands of immigrants, and even U.S. citizens of color, live under the … More Underground Lives: Criminalization and Fear Build Hidden Societies
When a pattern emerges – pay attention…. By Melanie Nathan, October 08, 2025 New York City deserves a mayor who speaks with one voice—publicly and privately—on human dignity. With Zohran Mamdani, the pattern now visible across headlines and timelines is not an isolated gaffe; it’s a through-line. On the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, … More LGBTQI+ AND JEWISH NEW YORKERS: WAKE UP TO A DUPLICITOUS MAMDANI
May 27, 2025. Ghana’s Parliament Ready for First Reading of New Anti-LGBTQI+ Bill By Melanie Nathan, May 28, 2025 The Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, announced yesterday during his opening speech at the 1st Sitting of the 2nd Meeting of the 1st Session of the 9th Parliament of the 4th Republic of … More GHANA UPDATE: NEW LAWS AND ESCALATING VIOLENCE
There is a massive difference between calling for the eradication of Jews and their ancestral home versus calling for peace in the region. Whether you like it or not, and no matter how you choose to define it – if you are participating or supporting any so-called resistance through marching, social media sharing, commentary, etc. … More Call for Peace and Unity Among LGBTQI+ as we Head into Pride Month
By Melanie Nathan, May 07, 2025 Today began the Conclave to elect the successor Pope to Pope Francis in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican: Could an African Pope Change the landscape for Africa’s LGBTQI+ community from the cruel criminalization of homosexuality and the vicious violence it serves to license to tolerance? Perhaps if an African became … More Could a Puff of White Smoke Turn Hell to Heaven for Africa’s LGBTQI+ Communities
By Melanie Nathan, March 30, 2025. I had a visceral reaction to Hannah Einbinder’s 7+ minute visibility award acceptance speech at Human Rights Campaign’s Los Angeles gala last week. Several things struck me, pointing mostly to the infringement of the platform, resulting in subpar representation of real life for Queers, couched in the performative and … More Hannah Einbinder’s Irresponsible Visibility through HRC Gala Award Speech
By Melanie Nathan, January 10, 2025. Assuming office this past week, Ghana’s new President said: “This administration will work tirelessly to ensure every Ghanaian, regardless of your status or background, is treated with dignity and afforded equal protection under the law”. However we all know this flies in the face of the stance that the … More Ghana’s New Parliament and President Loom Large to Tyrannize Gays
As we wish you all a Happy New Year African Human Rights Coalition brings you Accomplishments, Concerns and Hopes: Dec 29, 2024 Dear Friends, At this end of our tenth anniversary year at African Human Rights Coalition, I want to express my deepest gratitude for the support you have shown in so many ways, through … More AHRC: For a Meaningful 2025: May We Survive and Thrive
Giving Tuesday is the day the world comes together to show it cares. Our fellow NGO’s participate in so many creative ways to bring attention to the important and challenging work we are all doing, to tell stories and express needs. You will be receiving many an email in these days. Your contributions are life-saving … More On Giving Tuesday AHRC Prepares for the Anti- LGBTQI+ Refugee Trump Admin
By Melanie Nathan, Nov 03, 2024, In announcing U.S State Department’s Assistant Secretary Molly Phee’s Travel to the Arts festival, Dakar Biennale, in Senegal, and in seeking to expand U.S. investment, it is difficult to look away from Senegal’s glaring human rights infractions that serve to license and foster violence against LGBTQI+ people, by state … More U.S. Seeks to Expand Investment in Senegal While Harsh Anti LGBTQI Conditions Ignored
By Melanie Nathan, October 29, 2024 ILGA WORLD issued the below statement refusing the Israeli member organization, The Aguda the right to submit Tel Aviv as a host city for a vote for the World Conference 2026-2027. In doing this, ILGA also decided to suspend the member organization. African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC) is the … More ILGA Goes Full Antisemitic Complicit in Cancelling LGBTQI Jews
U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello will travel to Nairobi and Addis Ababa, starting on September 29, to continue diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Sudan and engage with Sudanese refugees and civilian leaders on restoring the path to an inclusive democratic future. Building on diplomatic momentum forged during the UN General Assembly’s … More U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello in Nairobi and Addis Ababa
By Melanie Nathan, July 22, 2024. While Pro Palestinian and Pro Hamas agitators, and organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace, JVP, continued to enlist U.S. College students, promoting the notion that Israel’s only interest in providing same-sex and LGBTQI+ equality was to “PINK WASH” alleged human rights abuses, they succeeded in creating a climate … More Queers for Palestine weaponized while Palestinian Hamas orders LGBTQ Kill List
Advocates representing Ugandan LGBTQI+ and Human Rights interests have consolidated their Supreme Court appeals after the Ugandan Court’s decision to uphold the vile and dangerous Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 (AHA), once dubbed The Kill the Gays Bill. Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) reports that as appeal has formally been lodged at the Supreme … More Ugandans Consolidate Appeal against the Anti-Homosexuality Act to Supreme Court amidst Many Fleeing
Nigeria Signs Samoa Agreement triggering Anti-LGBTQI+ Panic By Melanie Nathan, July 05, 2023 In recent years Africa has seen a trend to heighten anti-homosexuality legislation, especially in the East and West African regions, with only few countries decriminalizing, and those mostly in the Southern part of Africa. Nigeria has one of the worst anti-Homosexuality laws … More Nigeria Ratifies Samoa Agreement stirs Anti-LGBTQI+ Hostility
By Melanie Nathan, July 01, 2024. Malawi’s Constitutional Court has dismissed the case of two applicants who wanted it to legalize same-sex relationships. The judgment means homosexuality remains an offense in Malawi, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. Malawi State lawyers welcomed the ruling while lawyers for the applicants expressed disappointment. Minority … More Malawi Court Rules in Favor of Anti Homosexuality Law
Please consider signing this critical African Human Rights Coalition petition on the ALL OUT PLATFORM, where many thanks are due: The South African government’s silence in the face of escalating anti-LGBTQI+ violence and legislation in African countries contradicts its commitment to human rights. South Africa has a duty to its past and to its future … More ALL OUT Petition climbs calling South Africa out for ignoring LGBTQI+ Human Rights in Africa
By Melanie Nathan, June 26, 2024. African Human Rights Coalition has addressed a warning to LGBTQI+ refugees in Kenya: Firstly we urge refugees to remain calm during this very dangerous period, as there are measures you can take to best protect yourselves. Stay away from Kenyan protests and below the warnings, see the CNN Report … More Advisory LGBTQI+ Refugees face danger in Kenya during Riots
by Melanie Nathan, June 21, 2024. A top Namibian court on Friday struck down the African country’s colonial-era laws outlawing homosexuality and effectively same-sex relationships, in a victory for the LGBTQ community. In this historic ruling the Namibian High Court of Windhoek has ruled that the law criminalizing sodomy is unconstitutional under the Constitution of … More Celebration and Caution as Namibian High Court Strikes Down Law Criminalizing Homosexuality in Historic Ruling
By Melanie Nathan, April 22, 2024 The U.S. State Department Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor released its 2023 Human Rights report for all countries today, including the Kenyan Human rights report for 2023.. Last year African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC) reported that Kenya, despite its international commitment to the Refugee Convention, had defied … More U.S. State Dept Human Rights Report Confirms Kenya Fails and Abuses LGBTI Refugees and Asylum Seekers
It is never prudent to lie about one’s sexuality to claim refugee status or asylum in an African country or the United States or anywhere in the world. Unfortunately opportunists have entered the picture and are hurting the space for those forcibly displaced due to their authentic SOGIESC. I have known this for the past … More Information Listing the Names of those Frauds Infiltrating the LGBTQI+ Ugandan and African Community
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