As conservative ideologies infused by religious doctrines continue to hold sway in societies across the globe, the women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people remain primary subjects of oppressive laws and practices. The freedom to hold or not hold religious beliefs is an important human right. However, when personal religious beliefs form the basis for policies and practices that affect the public at large, the results can often lead to the marginalisation and oppression of those whose gender, sexual orientation or lifestyle are considered ‘sinful’, ‘unnatural’, unholy or even evil. The rise of the religious right in the United States, for example, has precipitated legislative and judicial action aimed at rolling back women’s reproductive freedoms and blocking efforts to protect gays, lesbians and transgendered people from discrimination. Right-wing Christian groups have also been influential on the international level, where their resources were directed to support anti-gay causes such as the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014 (also known as the “Kill the Gays” Bill) in Uganda and the “no” side in the recent Irish referendum to recognise same-sex marriage. In Latin America the growth of the neo-pentecostal fundamentalism has been visible through a number of different actions, for example, the attempt from an evangelical congressman to create legislation that would allow Brazilian’s psychiatrists to treat homosexuality as a disease (“gay cure”). Similarly the Russian Orthodox church played an important role in creating a hostile environment where gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people are subjected to physical violence at the hands of Orthodox activists and police and where it is now a criminal offense to publicly promote LGBTIQ rights.