Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: The United States has been and must always be the global leader in protecting human rights, including the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) peoples around the world. The norms of good governance, human rights protections, and the rule of law have been violated unconscionably with respect to LGBTQI peoples in an overwhelming majority of countries around the world, where LGBTQI people face violence, hatred, bigotry, and discrimination because of who they are and whom they love.
In at least 62 countries, or roughly 32 percent of 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 Human Rights Reports to Congress.
These reports continue to 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 State Department, LGBTQI individuals are subjected in many countries to capricious imprisonment, loss of employment, housing, access to health care, 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, also widely referred to as the global gag rule . 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.
At the beginning of his second term, President Donald Trump reinstated the global gag rule before abruptly terminating nearly all foreign aid contracts. Because they face tremendous discrimination in the formal labor sector, many sex workers are also LGBTQI individuals, and many sex-worker-led programs and clinics serve the LGBTQI community with safe, non-stigmatizing, medical and social care. USAID has also referred to sex workers as a most-at-risk population . The anti-prostitution loyalty oath that health care providers receiving United States assistance must take isolates sex-worker-led and serving groups from programs and reinforces stigma, undermining both the global AIDS response and human rights.
The Supreme Court found this requirement unconstitutional as it applies to United States nongovernmental organizations and their foreign affiliates in 2013. According to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, which monitors homicides of transgender individuals, there were at least 350 cases of reported killings of trans and gender-diverse people between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. 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, and are then often denied official identification papers, blocking them from accessing basic services and legal protections. Asylum and refugee protection are critical last-resort protections for LGBTQI individuals, but those who seek such protections 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 exacerbated inequalities that LGBTQI individuals face, including access to health care, stigma, and discrimination, undermining LGBTQI rights around the world.
In December 2011, President Barack Obama 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 LGBTQI Persons. In 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 is 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 on LGBTQI rights.
In Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court held that title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 13988 to enforce Bostock, which orders all agency heads to determine the additional steps they should take to ensure that administration policies are fully implemented consistent with Bostock, including the Secretary of State and the Administrator of USAID.
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, as in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and trade preference programs is intended both to ensure a level playing field for United States business 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. United States participation in the Equal Rights Coalition, which is a new 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, is vital to international efforts to respond to violence and impunity.
Those who represent the United States abroad, including our diplomats, development specialists and military, should reflect the diversity of our country and honor the United States call to equality, including through proud and open service abroad by LGBTQI United States citizens and those living with HIV.
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Sec. 2
Findings
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