54 groups to Obama: Time to act on ENDA order

Photo: Michael Key. Washington Blade.

Repost from the Washington Blade

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.

Read the Letter: Federal contractor EO POTUS sign-on letter 2-20-13

Rainbow Coalition

Repost from Foreign Policy

A gay rights revolution is sweeping across the Americas. It’s time for Washington to catch up.

In his second inaugural address, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to make the United States a beacon for the world by recommitting the country to its ideals of equality. He also made history by saying those ideals demand marriage rights for same-sex couples just as they have demanded equal citizenship for women and African Americans.

But even if the Supreme Court or lawmakers soon agree with Obama’s words — “for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well” — the United States will be a latecomer to advancing marriage rights. The world’s leaders on this issue are not just from places Americans might expect — Western Europe or Canada — but many countries in our own hemisphere; places not usually known for progressivism on social issues. While Obama was undergoing his “evolution” on marriage rights, there has been a gay rights revolution that has stretched from Tierra del Fuego to the Rio Grande.

One dramatic illustration: When a broad coalition of human-rights activists brought a gay rights charter to the United Nations in 2007, the push was led not by the likes of Sweden or the Netherlands, but by Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Same-sex marriage was not legal in any of these countries then, but a lot has changed in the years since. Continue Reading

The White House Office of Public Engagement invites you to an LGBT Policy Briefing

The White House Office of Public Engagement invites you to an LGBT Policy Briefing

When: January 18, 2013, 9:00 AM – Noon 

Where: U.S. Department of Commerce
Herbert Clark Hoover Building Auditorium
1401 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC

The White House Office of Public Engagement invites you to a policy briefing and engagement forum focused on issues of importance to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.  Advocates and community leaders from around the country will hear from senior Obama Administration officials about the accomplishments of the first term as well as opportunities to work together in the months and years ahead.  This event is closed press and off the record.

 Click here to RSVP.  You are welcome to share this invitation with your friends and colleagues.  Seating is first come, first serve.  Enter from 14^th Street NW between Constitution Ave NW and Pennsylvania Ave NW.

Sign up for White House LGBT Updates

For more information about the Obama Administration’s work on LGBT issues, please visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/lgbt

For more information about the White House Office of Public Engagement, please visit http://whitehouse.gov/engage

Freedom House lists “LGBTI Victories in the Western Hemisphere” as a Best Human Rights Development in 2012

In an article on the Huffington Post website on December 31, Freedom House listed its best and worst human rights developments of 2012. LGBTI victories were listed as a “Best Human Rights Development” and we agree.

There were several important victories in the battle for LGBTI rights in 2012, particularly in the United States and Latin America. A U.S. president voiced public support for gay marriage for the first time, and three states — Washington, Maryland and Maine — passed laws allowing same-sex marriage, bringing the total number of states with such rules to nine. In addition, the first openly gay woman was elected to the U.S. Senate. In Argentina, where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2010, the Senate passed legislation that allows gender to be legally changed without medical or judicial approval, and includes sex-change surgery and hormone treatment in government health insurance plans. The same month, Chile passed an anti-discrimination law that penalizes all forms of discrimination. Although not specifically written to protect LGTBI rights, the measure was spurred by the brutal killing an openly gay man. Even Cuba has jumped on the bandwagon, electing its first transgender person to municipal office. Same-sex marriage is also legal in Canada and some parts of Mexico. Sadly, for all of the progress seen in this hemisphere, the situation for LGBTI people has actually worsened in much of Eurasia and Africa.

You can see the full list here.

The Votes are In

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.

Related Posts:  

Will the Candidates Address Issues Impacting LGBT Communities at Home and Abroad in the Upcoming Presidential Debate?

Will LGBT Issues Feature in the Upcoming Presidential Debate?

Reactions coming in from LGBT advocates around the world

Look for future blogs on the global impact of the election results in the United States and our policy objectives for the next four years.

Will the Candidates Address Issues Impacting LGBT Communities at Home and Abroad in the Upcoming Presidential Debate?

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.

What to Expect From Romney

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.

Video: President Obama on “Never Again” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Full transcript of the speech is available at here.

Achieving an AIDS-Free Generation for Gay Men and Other MSM

Download Reports in PDF format below

• Full Report
• Executive Summary

For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Cub Barrett, Program Communications Manager
(212) 806-1602

NEW YORK, January 18, 2012—Funding to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS consistently fails to reach programs designed to control the disease among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM), according to a new analysis released Wednesday by amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research and the Center for Public Health and Human Rights (CPHHR) at Johns Hopkins University. The report finds that resources dedicated to addressing the epidemic among MSM are grossly insufficient, and that funding intended for this population is often diverted away from MSM-related services.

Despite Obama Administration leadership in setting bold new targets to tackle global AIDS and highlight the human rights of MSM and other sexual minorities, U.S. government aid intended to prevent and treat HIV infection among MSM continues to encounter obstacles throughout the world.

The new report, “Achieving an AIDS-Free Generation for Gay Men and Other MSM,” provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of HIV-related funding and programming for this population. Focusing on eight countries, the report finds that national governments have failed to adequately tackle the epidemic among MSM. The findings are especially dire in countries that criminalize MSM. In those settings, governments spend fewer resources on HIV-related health services for MSM, do less to track and understand the epidemic, and are more likely to repurpose donor funds intended to fight the epidemic among MSM.

Obama Addresses Global Gay Rights in UN Speech

Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, issued the following statement to The Advocate Wednesday on the president’s address:

“The President’s remarks today at the UN General Assembly, where he called for the world to ‘stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere,’ were historic. Never before has a sitting U.S. President spoken so clearly about LGBT rights in a formal address to the full General Assembly. It shows how far we have come.”

“In his last months in office, President Bush refused to join a UN statement calling on countries to decriminalize homosexual relations and relationships. Today, President Obama stood before that same institution and pledged U.S. support for LGBT rights globally. This is the next frontier of the human rights struggle at the UN, and the arc of justice is clearly bending toward equality.”

Read the full article published by The Advocate here

Related Global Equality Today posting: President Obama calls on the countries of the world to stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians