To: Political leaders, religious and community leaders, civil society, LGBTQ+ and feminist movements, artists, filmmakers, media, and the public all have power to challenge exclusionary narratives and affirm diverse African families.

OUR FAMILIES: SAY NO TO ANTI-LGBTQ+ FAMILY VALUES

We call on the organisers, political leaders, religious leaders and public decision-makers associated with the Pan-African family values movement to recognise and protect the diversity of African families and to include queer and other marginalised communities in public conversations about family, culture and belonging.

Specifically, we demand that decision-makers:

  1. Stop promoting policies and public messaging that portray LGBTQ+ people and their families as threats to African society or culture.
  2. Ensure that future public forums and conferences on family and family values include meaningful representation from LGBTQ+, feminist, human rights and other affected communities, so that discussions about African families are not shaped by one political or religious perspective alone.
  3. Recognise diverse family structures and chosen families in public dialogue and policy discussions, including families headed by LGBTQ+ people and families providing care and support outside traditional structures.
  4. Protect the right of artists, filmmakers, activists and communities to tell and share stories about their families and lived experiences without intimidation, censorship or discrimination.
Our request is simple: if leaders want to speak about the future of African families, they must listen to the people whose families are being discussed. Family should be a space of care, dignity, safety and belonging: not a tool for exclusion.

We invite decision-makers to meet with queer and feminist organisations, artists and community representatives before the 2027 conference and create a genuine space for dialogue about the many families that already exist across Africa.

Why is this important?

Across Africa, “family values” is increasingly being used in public and political conversations to define which relationships, families and identities are considered legitimate. When these conversations exclude LGBTQ+ people and other marginalised communities, the consequences are not abstract. They affect whether people feel safe to speak about who they love, who cares for them, how they build families, and whether their lives are treated with dignity.

We care about this because African families are already diverse. They include biological families, single-parent families, extended families, families built through friendship, chosen families, and communities that step in when biological families cannot. Queer Africans are part of these families ; as children, parents, siblings, caregivers, partners, friends and community members. Yet public narratives about “family” can make people feel that their families do not count. We believe nobody should have to defend their right to belong to their own community.

Our campaign is a counterculture effort using Activism and public action because changing laws and policies also requires changing the stories people hear about one another. When audiences in allover Africa watch films and severe creative mediums about queer families and then speak directly with filmmakers and each other, they are doing more than attending a screening: they are creating a different conversation about what African family can mean. The campaign begins with these shared cultural spaces and grows through public dialogue, media engagement, collective action and solidarity across borders.

By signing and sharing this campaign, people can help demonstrate that there is public support for a broader, more inclusive conversation about African families. Building visible pressure gives decision-makers a reason to listen to communities that are often spoken about but rarely invited into the room. We are not against family values. We are asking: whose families, whose values, and who gets to decide? We want decision-makers to listen to the people whose lives are being discussed and recognise that African families already exist in many forms. Our families deserve dignity, safety, love and belonging.

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