LGBTQ+ charity to close after eight years: ‘Immensely proud’

LGBTQ+ charity The Ozanne Foundation, led by gay evangelical Christian and conversion therapy survivor Jayne Ozanne, will cease operations after eight years, the organisation has announced.

The foundation launched on 28 December 2017 and sought to “work with religious organisations around the world to eliminate discrimination based on sexuality or gender in order to embrace and celebrate the equality and diversity of all”. It was awarded charitable status in 2018.

The charity had a three-fold strategy – to encounter educate and empower – to “create opportunities for meaningful encounters with LGBTI+ people of faith with those of a more conservative mind set”.

It aimed to “tackle misunderstandings about LGBTI+ people through better education of the science surrounding sexuality and gender issues, and the impact of prejudice on their mental health” and seek ways of “empowering people to speak out in their immediate communities in addition to equipping them with the tools they need to help bring about change”.

The charity announced on social media on Tuesday (30 September) that it would cease operations at midnight that day and had disbursed its assets.

The decision follows Ozanne being elected as vice-president of the Committee for Employment & Social Security, in Guernsey, where she grew up and to where she moved back last year.

“I am immensely proud of all we have achieved over the years, particularly with regards to highlighting the harm that conversion therapy inflicts on LGBT+ people, most often at the hands of religious leaders,” Ozanne said.

“Our recent work helping set up a course for senior religious leaders from around the world with the University of Oxford ensures that our work will continue. Perhaps most importantly, the need for LGBT+ people to be treated as equals is now a mainstream issue amongst nearly all the major world religions, and a matter with which tens of thousands are now engaged.

“It is perhaps no coincidence that organised religion continues to face significant decline as increasing numbers of people vote with their feet over the treatment of LGBT+ people. You cannot preach a message of unconditional love, then place conditions on who is and is not allowed to receive it.”

All good things must come to end at some point… https://t.co/BGvk24loYl

— Jayne Ozanne (@JayneOzanne) September 30, 2025

The foundation’s chairwoman, Rosie Harper, said: “We are all incredibly thankful to Jayne for her dedication and service in working towards the full equality of all people of faith within religious settings. It has been a challenging task taking on those who refuse to engage with the harm that they inflict but Jayne has done so with passion and commitment knowing that she speaks for so many who have been silenced and ignored over the years.

“Perhaps just as importantly, she has been a shining example of what it is to be unashamedly gay and unashamedly Christian.

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