Calling for Pride at State Department

The Council for Global Equality joined member organizations today to call on Secretary Pompeo to recognize LGBTI Pride month, despite his failure to do so last year.  Pride month provides an opportunity for the State Department to issue a call for international solidarity and a commitment to working with all countries to address violence and discrimination against LGBTI people everywhere – particularly transgender people, who face the most extreme violence within our community.  The letter comes after the State Department refused to sign or issued confusing clarifications to important international declarations last month marking the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia – IDAHOBIT.

Without a Pride statement from the State Department, the Trump Administration must be seen as deliberately rejecting international standards and alliances in a calculated effort to delegitimize the rights of LGBTI people, with explicit exclusion of transgender people.  This “America Alone” stance undermines our country’s international alliances and its long history as a champion of human rights in international fora – and it undermines the growing international consensus around human rights for LGBTI persons everywhere. 

Read the full letter here.