Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: The norms of good governance, human rights protections, and the rule of law have been violated unconscionably with respect to LGBTQI people in an overwhelming majority of countries around the world, where LGBTQI people face violence, hatred, bigotry, and discrimination because of who they are and who they love. In at least 67 countries (almost 35 percent of the countries in the world), same-sex relations and relationships are criminalized. Many countries also criminalize or otherwise prohibit cross-dressing and gender-affirming treatments for transgender individuals.
The World Bank has begun to measure the macro-economic costs of criminal laws targeting LGBTQI individuals through lost productivity, detrimental health outcomes and violence, as a step toward mitigating those costs. Violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity are documented in the Department of State’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which show a clear pattern of human rights violations, including murder, rape, torture, death threats, extortion, and imprisonment, in every region of the world based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In many instances, police, prison, military, and civilian government authorities have been directly complicit in abuses aimed at LGBTQI citizens. As documented by the Department of State, LGBTQI individuals are subjected in many countries to capricious imprisonment, loss of employment, housing, access to health care, and societal stigma and discrimination. LGBTQI-specific restrictions on basic freedoms of assembly, press, and speech exist in every region of the world. Targeted sanctions are an important tool to push for accountability for violations of the human rights of LGBTQI people.
Anti-LGBTQI laws and discrimination pose significant risks for LGBTQI youth who come out to their family or community and often face rejection, homelessness, and limited educational and economic opportunities. These factors contribute to increased risks of substance abuse, suicide, and HIV infection among LGBTQI youth. Anti-LGBTQI laws also increase global health risks. Studies have shown that when LGBTQI people (especially LGBTQI youth) face discrimination, they are less likely to seek HIV testing, prevention, and treatment services.
LGBTQI populations are disproportionately impacted by the Mexico City Policy, which is widely referred to as the global gag rule . The global gag rule prohibits foreign organizations receiving health assistance from the United States from providing information, referrals, or services for legal abortion or advocating for access to abortion services in their country, even if an organization is using its own money for such activities. LGBTQI people often receive much of their health care through reproductive health clinics, and organizations that cannot comply with the policy are forced to discontinue work on United States-supported global health projects that are frequently used by LGBTQI populations, including HIV prevention and treatment, stigma reduction, and research.
Because LGBTQI individuals face tremendous discrimination in the formal labor sector, many become sex workers. Many sex-worker-led programs and clinics serve the LGBTQI community with safe, non-stigmatizing, medical and social care. The anti-prostitution loyalty oath that health care providers receiving United States assistance must take isolates sex-worker-led and serving groups from health care programs and reinforces stigma, undermining both the global AIDS response and human rights.
A 2013 Supreme Court opinion held this requirement to be unconstitutional as it applies to United States nongovernmental organizations. According to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, which monitors homicides of transgender individuals worldwide, there were at least 327 cases of reported killings of trans and gender-diverse people between October 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022. In many countries, intersex individuals experience prejudice and discrimination because their bodies do not conform to general expectations about sex and gender.
Because of these expectations, medically unnecessary interventions are often performed in infancy without the consent or approval of intersex individuals, in violation of international human rights standards. Asylum and refugee protection are critical last-resort protections for LGBTQI individuals, but those who seek such protections can face ostracization and abuse in refugee camps and detention facilities. They are frequently targeted for violence, including sexual assault, in refugee camps and in immigration detention.
LGBTQI individuals may be segregated against their will for long periods in solitary confinement, in an effort to protect them from such violence, but prolonged solitary confinement itself represents an additional form of abuse that is profoundly damaging to the social and psychological well-being of any individual. The global COVID–19 pandemic has exacerbated inequalities faced by LGBTQI individuals, including access to health care, stigma, and discrimination, undermining LGBTQI rights around the world.
In December 2011, President Barack Obama released the Presidential Memorandum—International Initiatives to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons , which directed all Federal foreign affairs agencies to ensure that their diplomatic, humanitarian, health and foreign assistance programs take into account the needs of marginalized LGBTQI communities and persons. In 2015, the Department of State established the position of Special Envoy for the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Persons.
The position was left vacant during the Trump Administration, but President Biden appointed a new United States Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Persons in 2021. In February 2021, President Joseph Biden issued the Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World, which stated that it shall be the policy of the United States to pursue an end to violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics , and called for United States global leadership in the cause of advancing the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world.
In 2020, in Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq. ) prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 13988 (86 Fed. Reg. 7023; relating to preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity) to enforce this holding, which orders all Federal agency heads, including the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, to review agency actions to determine what additional steps should be taken to ensure that agency policies are consistent with the nondiscrimination policy set forth in Executive Order 13988.
The use of United States diplomatic tools, including the Department of State’s exchange and speaker programs, to address the human rights needs of marginalized communities has helped inform public debates in many countries regarding the protective responsibilities of any democratic government. Inclusion of human rights protections for LGBTQI individuals in United States trade agreements, such as the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (commonly known as the USMCA ) and trade preference programs, is intended— to ensure a level playing field for United States businesses; and to provide greater workplace protections overseas, compatible with those of the United States.
Engaging multilateral fora and international institutions is critical to impacting global norms and to broadening global commitments to fairer standards for the treatment of all people, including LGBTQI people. The United States must remain a leader in the United Nations system and has a vested interest in the success of that multilateral engagement. Ongoing United States participation in the Equal Rights Coalition, which is an intergovernmental coalition of more than 40 governments and leading civil society organizations that work together to protect the human rights of LGBTQI people around the world, remains vital to international efforts to respond to violence committed against those in the LGBTQI community with impunity.
Those who represent the United States abroad, including our diplomats, development specialists and military members, should reflect the diversity of our country and honor America’s call to equality, including through proud and open service abroad by LGBTQI Americans and those living with HIV.
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- 86 FR 7023
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