A coalition of 54 groups is ramping up pressure for President Obama to sign a heavily sought-after executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers.
In a letter dated Feb. 20, a coalition of LGBT advocacy group and other civil rights organizations — such as those representing the black and Latino community — call on Obama to take administrative action to protecting workers from anti-LGBT workplace bias.
“Over the past 70 years, both Republican and Democratic presidents have used executive orders to ensure that taxpayer money is not wasted on workplace discrimination or harassment based on characteristics such as race, gender, and religion,” the letter states. “These contractor policies exist to this day, and they cover almost one in four jobs throughout the United States. It is now time for an executive order ensuring the same workplace protections for LGBT Americans.” Continue Reading.
Global Activists Meeting in Washington DC. Photo: Munya K.
From Uganda:
I stayed all night watching the results come in and at 4am on the election night, I joined hundreds of Ugandan activists, Diplomats, MPs and civil society at the US embassy in Kampala. Minute by minute we watched and when Obama got the required 270 electoral college votes, I simply sat down and enjoyed the celebration . My fellow activist Bishop Christopher Senyonjo (I have never seen him so over-joyed) danced as did many of the guests. It was merry. I could not stand to imagine what Mr. Romney would have done about passing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, given that there are strong links between The Family, the US funder of the author of the bill Mr. Bahati, and Republicans.
The LGBTI community in Kampala held a music show at the national theatre later in the evening, but police stopped it after two hours. We are used to that. The big picture is that we have an advocate in the White House. Humanity prevailed……and we shall prevail. It may not come during my lifetime, because I can easily expire in this struggle, but one day, we shall be free.
News of Obama’s victory couldn’t be more timely. Russian LGBT people are facing extreme pressures, with the “propaganda” laws aiming to take away their basic rights and making a stab at their dignity itself. The entire civil society is experiencing an all-out attack by the government, with civil freedoms rapidly diminishing. Despite these grave challenges, the LGBT movement is more vibrant and stronger than ever, with gay people ready to go out on the streets to protest, go to court to defend their rights. If this momentum is kept, anything is achievable, and with Obama’s victory we can hope that the diplomatic missions in Russia will continue taking on a leading role in supporting gay rights.
Coming Out St. Petersburg
From St. Lucia:
Kenita Placide
From Venezuela:
Obama’s victory is also a victory for LGBTI human rights defenders all around the world. The continuous support to our activities will continue, and we will therefore able to further develop our actions in view of getting equal rights in our countries. On the other hand, the example of Obama’s actions with regard to LGBTI rights is an example to be used to force changes where radical and fundamentalists forces still in place, such as it is the case in Venezuela, where no significant improvements had been achieved, and in many cases we may detect a withdraw with regard to previous situations.
Tamara Adrián
DIVERLEX Diversidad e Igualdad a través de la ley
From Nepal:
The US Embassy in Kathmandu had invited us to observe the US presidential election yesterday; there were many Nepali from all walks of lives observing the election. The US embassy also put a mock pooling booth and allowed us to vote with a fake ballot. Many of us voted for Obama.
With Obama’s reelection LGBTI rights will make significant improvements not just in the US but all over the world. Obama is very popular in Nepal and people know him also for being LGBTI friendly. This makes us feel easier as activists to work on LGBTI rights in Nepal and around the world.
Congratulations to you all. Congratulations to all of us.
Sunil Pant
Director, Blue Diamond Society
From Mexico:
We are celebrating the re-election of Obama for another four-year period. It means that we still have an ally to go forward in the international struggle for LGBTI human rights and lot of hope for human rights advances for LGBTI people within the USA.
We know that since his first election we had a lot of expectations, and that it has not been easy for him. But we hope that in these next four years he will be able to build a broad alliance with other governments and advance the protection of LGBTI people. It is a profound democratic project promoting welfare and protecting human rights in which immigrants and LGBTI are clearly included.
We congratulate all American citizens that supported Obama´s agenda of respect for social, cultural and sexual diversity as a key contribution towards a better world!
Gloria Careaga
ILGA Co-Secretary General
From Moldova:
For us, the victory of Barack Obama is a victory of equal rights for all people, not only in the United States but all over the world including the small countries like Moldova. USA is a very influential country and this effect is not aggressive but pro-development. The government of Barack Obama has raised debate of LGBT issues to a new level in the world and we are confident that in the next four years it will be able to do more. U.S. President’s clear position on the rights of LGBT people became clear position of US Embassies in our countries. With their help and support, we will be able to further develop of democracy principles and the importance of each person, regardless of his/her sexual orientation and gender identity.
Anastasia Donilova
Director of Gender DOC-M
From Spain:
In Spain the LGBT movement has received with happiness news about President Obama´s re-election. November 6 was a great day for LGBT people in Spain because our Constitutional Court confirmed that the law that permitted marriage for same sex couples since 2005 is completely constitutional. The right-wing party Partido Popular (now in the Government) that were against the law, yesterday accepted the High Court decision and declared that they will maintain the law without any change. And after that, we learned early morning that President Obama, who has supported LGBT equality, will have four years more. The US election is important for us because Fundación Triángulo is concerned not just about Spanish domestic issues but also for the global fight for equality everywhere. And we know that, with Obama, the USA will be a great ally against discrimination for LGBT people all over the world. Congratulations to all North-American people.
Miguel Ángel Sánchez Rodríguez.
Fundación Triángulo, for Social Equality of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans.
SPAIN
From Canada:
We congratulate our American friends on an impressive election night yesterday. The election results saw many important achievements for LGBT rights in the United States. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) becomes the first openly gay member of the US Senate, while Maine and Maryland have approved same-sex marriage. Though votes continue to be counted in Washington State, marriage equality remains in the lead. Overall, a great night for LGBT rights!
The votes are in: Barack Obama has been reelected to serve our country for another four years. Considered alongside the historic victories for marriage equality and the election of LGBT candidates and allies to Congress, this is an election that advances equality in profound ways – both at home and abroad. We congratulate the President on this historic victory and renew our commitment to partner with his Administration to support vigorous American leadership in the fight for LGBT human and civil rights.
In previous blogs (see related posts links below), we’ve laid out an international equality agenda that we hope the new Administration will pursue over the next four years. That agenda includes:
A clear stand in our bilateral and multilateral diplomacy against the mistreatment and discrimination that impact too many foreign LGBT populations;
Employment protections for LGBT citizens, and a partnership with corporate America to encourage those protections in the overseas American workplace;
Greater efforts to ensure that faith, while respected and preserved, does not intrude into government responsibilities to ensure fair and equal treatment in our laws at home and in our assistance programs abroad;
Elimination of inequities in our country’s current immigration laws, which serve LGBT citizens so poorly; and
Using the foreign policy and developmental assistance tools of all relevant USG departments and agencies to advance respect for LGBT rights as a critical component of the values our country represents.
We reiterate that agenda today, and call for its bold pursuit. The next four years will be a critical period for LGBT Americans to achieve many of the fairness goals that have eluded us for decades. But in equal measure, American leadership will be crucial in ensuring that LGBT rights are fully integrated into U.S. and international human rights policy. If we as a country are true to our founding values and ideals, we must stand clearly and forcefully for the fundamental freedoms and rights that have eluded LGBT people internationally, and to support policies in their defense.
Over four years, President Obama has stood firmly for these freedoms and rights. He and Secretary of State Clinton have earned our respect and gratitude. But there is more to accomplish if we are to anchor respect for LGBT people in policies and procedures, and to ensure that the leadership shown to date is an enduring feature of American diplomacy.
With the President’s continued leadership, our country can, in four years’ time, become a shining example of a nation that lives up to its ideals. We pledge to be an avid partner in pursuing that goal as the new Administration and Congress take their places next year.
With two presidential debates remaining before the November 6 presidential election, will the candidates address issues impacting LGBT communities at home and abroad?
We’d like to hear the candidates address:
Whether they agree with Secretary Clinton’s statement that “…gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”
To what degree human rights – including the epidemic of mistreatment and discrimination directed at foreign LGBT populations – should impact bilateral relationships; and
Whether, or how, their personal ethics embraces the cause of LGBT equality.
We believe voters should know:
How the candidates would respond to countries, like Uganda, that seek to penalize or even kill people who are gay;
Whether the candidates believe USG foreign assistance should be for developmental purposes only, or should be used to advance other national priorities, including democratic development and human rights enhancement; and
How they would direct USG departments and agencies with respect to using our foreign policy and developmental assistance tools to advance respect for LGBT rights.
Finally, we believe the candidates owe us, and all Americans:
A coherent sense of the place of LGBT rights within American foreign policy goals;
An understanding of whether they believe U.S.-funded AIDS prevention and treatment tools should target, among other populations, men who have sex with men; and
A clear statement as to whether LGBT fairness and equality, at home and abroad, will be a priority for them as President.
The world still respects America’s foreign policy voice. Over the coming four years, one of these two men can do much to impact how LGBT people are treated, at home and abroad. We need and deserve to know whether they are committed to take up that cause.
The Council for Global Equality has urged elected representatives and their staff from both major political parties to stand against LGBT human rights abuse and support LGBT-fair policies around the world. With the Republican Party now poised to nominate its presidential candidate, we address that appeal to Governor Romney.
Over the past four years, President Obama and his Administration have offered unprecedented support for LGBT human rights abroad:
The President has spoken out forcefully against anti-gay legislation pending in Uganda; his Administration has registered U.S. concerns about anti-LGBT discrimination and actions in countries ranging from Senegal, Cameroon, and Malawi to Lithuania, Honduras and Iraq.
The State Department’s annual human rights reports now give equal attention to the difficulties faced by LGBT people in every corner of the world.
New funding streams have been opened to support LGBT civil society organizations in troubled areas of the world.
The plight of LGBT refugees is being addressed.
Transgender Americans now can amend passport gender markers with greater dignity, while passport and birth report forms to be filed by gay and lesbian parents have been made more inclusive.
Secretary Clinton has spoken directly before an important human rights body about the need for the international community to address the issue of LGBT fairness more squarely.
And President Obama has directed all foreign affairs agencies to ensure that LGBT populations are integrated, where appropriate, into our foreign assistance programs and policies.
Through these actions, the Obama Administration has reaffirmed that no minority, in any country, is immune from international standards of human rights protections, and that America will stand for fairness for all people, including LGBT populations, as part of its foreign policy. In doing so, it has drawn from America’s principles of equality, fairness, and justice – principles that are part of our national conscience and discourse.
We’ve heard little from Governor Romney about human rights – or, indeed, about how he would approach the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people within his prospective human rights policy. We hope he will speak to these issues in the remaining course of his campaign, and that he will show leadership in ensuring that defending LGBT human and civil rights is a point of national unity, not one of political division.
The president’s decision represents a “next generation” for whom LGBT equality is a given.
May 10, 2012–As an LGBT rights advocate, I have experienced so many proud moments with our president. Our community in the United States can count a number of major achievements during President Obama’s tenure: an inclusive hate crimes law; the repeal of the US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy; and the hugely important decision that the attorney general will longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court.
So when the rumors started buzzing yesterday morning that Obama was about to announce his support for marriage equality, it was yet another exciting moment of tangible progress in our country and by our president. When I watched the ABC interview, I was most struck by the weight he gave to his conversations around the dinner table with his daughters, who themselves have friends with lesbian and gay parents. Obama acknowledged that his daughters’ perspectives have helped him evolve: “It wouldn’t even dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently.” Continue reading ‘Analysis: The global impact of Obama’s support for gay marriage’
President Obama explicitly addressed the plight gay men faced during the Holocaust in a speech Monday urging that the atrocities of the genocide “never again” occur.
Speaking at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in D.C., Obama included gays as part of the groups of people who were among the estimated 6 million victims during the genocide.
“We must tell our children about a crime unique in human history,” Obama said. “The one and only Holocaust — six million innocent people — men, women, children, babies — sent to their deaths just for being different, just for being Jewish. We tell them, our children, about the millions of Poles and Catholics and Roma and gay people and so many others who also must never be forgotten.”
Obama’s speech, delivered to an estimated 250 people, took place days after Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, which began Wednesday evening and ended in the evening Thursday.
The audience consisted of Holocaust survivors, Jewish community leaders, and organizations that work on atrocity prevention. It’s unclear if any representatives of the LGBT community were in the audience.
“We must tell our children,” Obama said. “But more than that, we must teach them. Because remembrance without resolve is a hollow gesture. Awareness without action changes nothing. In this sense, ‘never again’ is a challenge to us all — to pause and to look within.”
“Never again” was a refrain that Obama used repeatedly throughout the speech as he called for the rejection of hatred in all forms and the right for free states to exist, including Israel.
During the speech, Obama unveiled the executive order he signed earlier in the day authorizing sanctions on Syrian and Iranian companies using internet technology to track dissidents.
The president also announced he would award the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — to Jan Karski, a Polish Catholic who witnessed Jews being taken away to concentration camps and personally reported about the genocide to President Franklin Roosevelt.
Prior to the speech, Obama was led on a tour of the museum by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and Museum Director Sara Bloomfield. After the tour, the president and Wiesel lit a candle and observed a moment of silence in the Hall of Remembrance.
Obama’s inclusion of gays in his speech is significant because gay men were persecuted under Nazi control of Germany, although the state didn’t seek to kill all gay men as it did with the Jews as part of Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Continue reading ‘Obama includes gays in Holocaust speech’
Presidential Proclamation–Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month
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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
The story of America’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect Union. It is a story about the struggle to realize the great American promise that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law. Each June, we commemorate the courageous individuals who have fought to achieve this promise for LGBT Americans, and we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Since taking office, my Administration has made significant progress towards achieving equality for LGBT Americans. Last December, I was proud to sign the repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. With this repeal, gay and lesbian Americans will be able to serve openly in our Armed Forces for the first time in our Nation’s history. Our national security will be strengthened and the heroic contributions these Americans make to our military, and have made throughout our history, will be fully recognized. Continue reading ‘Presidential Proclamation–Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month’
