Global Equality Today (September 2023)

Happy Autumn! (Almost)

True, neither the calendar nor the temperatures in D.C. quite reflect that fall is upon us. But we’re already diving into what will certainly be a very busy season here in Washington. CGE and its 35 member organizations are hard at work engaging our partners in the Administration and on Capitol Hill to ensure that U.S. foreign policy consistently and comprehensively promotes LGBTQI+ human rights around the world.

There are plenty of challenges in front of us, from the possibility of a government shutdown, the PEPFAR reauthorization stalemate, and the distractions of the 2024 election cycle to a flood of viciously anti-LGBTQI+ legislative efforts, not only here in the United States but in dozens of other countries as well.

But we are not approaching our mission from a defensive posture, no matter how well-organized the movement to roll back the human rights of LGBTQI+ people — and democracy and civil society at large — might be. Instead, with sixteen months to go in this first Biden Administration, we are focused on institutionalizing our victories and expanding our pro-human rights agenda:

• Alongside HRC, we are working with our Hill allies calling for the President’s Budget request to include $40 million for the State Department’s Global Equality Fund (GEF) and $30 million for USAID’s Inclusive Development Hub’s Protection of LGBTQI+ Persons in the FY2025 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bills. We are also partnering with numerous allies in the HIV and SRHR (sexual and reproductive health and rights) movements to pass a clean PEPFAR reauthorization, even in the face of unprecedented attacks from the anti-abortion movement.

• CGE — in collaboration with Rainbow Railroad, ORAM, Immigration Equality, and IRAP, all CGE members — is working with the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration to ensure that the Biden Administration’s direct referral and private sponsorship mechanisms for refugees are both fully LGBTQI+-inclusive and fully operational. This includes promoting Rainbow Railroad’s referrals to  the new Welcome Corps program that will allow local groups to sponsor LGBTQI+ refugees to bring them to safety in the United States. (You can read more in our World Refugee Day blog.)

• We are excited by USAID’s release of its revised and expanded LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development Policy, and we are looking forward to collaborating with USAID’s Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator, Jay Gilliam, and his team to make sure that LGBTQI+ concerns are truly incorporated throughout the Agency’s work. To that end, we’ve added meetings with USAID’s regional and thematic bureaus to our annual meetings with State’s regional bureaus. And we are supporting the development of a new accountability mechanism at USAID to ensure that any violations of this groundbreaking new policy — or any other USAID policies ­— are reported and addressed at the local level.  

• We are working hard with Ugandan activists on the ground and with a global solidarity coalition organizing to overturn the horrific Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) assented to by President Museveni in May. The law has a genocidal intent and is already being implemented to disastrous effect. We are simultaneously working with regional colleagues to prevent the passage of similar anti-LGBTQI+ bills in other African countries, including Ghana and Kenya. Likewise, we are monitoring the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, where anti-LGBTQI+ legislation is pending and attacks on the LGBTQI+ communities are escalating, notably in Lebanon and Iraq.

• As part of our work fighting the AHA in Uganda, CGE met with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to call for the suspension of Uganda from AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which provides preferential trade benefits for qualifying countries. The AHA — the most draconian anti-LGBTQI+ law in the world — clearly contravenes the human rights requirements of the program, as well as the goals and ideals that animate the AGOA trade framework. CGE also has submitted public comments on Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana — in the latter two cases, with the goal of building pressure to scrap proposed anti-LGBTQI+ laws there — and will continue to work with our partners in the Administration and on the Hill to use U.S. trade policy as a tool to promote human rights.

CGE Co-Chairs Julie Dorf and Mark Bromley with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, center.

• We will continue to work with U.S., European, and Central Asian partners to push Uzbekistan for full decriminalization of homosexuality and the immediate end to the pervasive human rights violations committed against Uzbekistan’s LGBTQI+ community by state and non-state actors. This spring and summer, CGE and its partners have been meeting regularly with Congressional partners to promote this priority and to oppose rewarding Tashkent with normal trade relations without improving its human rights record. As Senators Murphy and Young introduce legislation to repeal Jackson-Vanik trade restrictions on Uzbekistan and its neighbors, we call on Congress and the Administration to ensure that human rights standards — including the decriminalization of homosexuality — are part of the trade normalization process.

Looking over the last few months, our work has included…

• CGE released an updated and expanded edition of Accessing U.S. Embassies: A Guide for LGBTQI+ Human Rights Defenders, our resource for helping international partners understand and access U.S. embassies and missions and build and maintain productive working relationships with U.S. diplomatic and development staff in around the world. This guide, released in English in June, will soon be available in Spanish, French, and Arabic as well.

• In May, CGE Co-Chair Mark Bromley attended the inaugural meeting of the P7 (for “Pride7”) that brought together LGBTQI+ advocates from the world’s leading industrial democracies to lobby the G7 alliance to promote LGBTQI+ human rights. The P7 meeting, ahead of the full G7 summit in Hiroshima, helped win support for passage of Japan’s first-ever LGBTQI+ rights legislation (as incomplete as the law may be) as well as lay the groundwork for the P7 becoming an officially recognized civil society engagement group attached to the G7.

CGE Co-Chair Mark Bromley joins other advocates at the inaugural meeting of the P7 in Tokyo

• At a June reception, CGE honored former Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) with our Global Equality Award shortly after he left Congress to lead the Rhode Island Foundation. We had the opportunity to talk with Rep. Cicilline about his leadership with the Congressional Equality Caucus and the Foreign Affairs Committee, the progress we’ve made during his dozen years in Congress, and the opportunities we see and the challenges we’re facing. Additionally, Ambassador Ursu Viorel of Moldova spoke powerfully about being the first openly LGBTQI+ Ambassador from a former Soviet republic and his country’s fundamental commitment to democracy and human rights — even as Russia wages war next door in Ukraine.

Top: former Rep. David Cicilline accepts the Global Equality Award

Bottom: Amb. Ursu Viorel of Moldova speaks to the reception

• In May, we spoke with Alexander Voronov, Executive Director of Coming Out, an NGO that provides legal, psychological, and other direct services to Russia’s LGBTQI+ community. Alex spoke about Coming Out’s continuing work, even in the face of the worsening crackdown on dissent in Putin’s Russia following the invasion of Ukraine — a crackdown that forced him to leave the country and function from exile.

• For IDAHOBIT, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia, and Transphobia, we welcomed the U.S. government’s rollout of its Interagency Action Plan dedicated to ending so-called “conversion therapy” (CTP) practices around the world. With this plan, the U.S. government has committed itself to the numerous partnerships necessary to stop these abusive practices. This includes working with LGBTQI+ community groups around the world; with like-minded allies and other partner governments; and with faith leaders, educators, professional associations, and other civil society networks. The U.S. government also plans to work to end CTPs at various multilateral fora, including the development banks and international institutions to which the United States is a party, to ensure that no financial or programmatic support, direct or otherwise, goes towards CTPs.

• For Pride in June — knowing how easy it is to focus on the backlash and the battles we’re fighting — we published a list of 23 recent victories in the movement for LGBTQI+ justice and human rights. We also reiterated how Pride marches are both expressions of fundamental rights to democratic participation and tools for promoting inclusivity, visibility, and acceptance. CGE staff also attended the annual State Department and USAID Pride receptions, meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Administrator Samantha Power, respectively.

Co-Chair Julie Dorf and CGE member leaders meet with Secretary of State Blinken, left

• Additionally, at the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, CGE promotes accountability and investments that support LGBTQI+-inclusive development. CGE staff helped organize several World Bank meetings over the summer that ultimately led to the freezing of new investments in Uganda following the adoption of the AHA.

Council for Global Equality Calls on U.S. Senators to Reject Legislation Abandoning Syrian Refugees

November 25 — Members of the Council for Global Equality today sent a letter to U.S. Senators calling on them to reject legislation, already passed in the House of Representatives as H.R. 4038, that would “bring the refugee resettlement system, which already moves at a very slow pace, to a grinding halt.”  The letter recognizes that LGBT refugees in Syria and Iraq are among the most vulnerable; that they have been hunted down and killed in gruesome public executions; and that they face additional discrimination and violence in flight within their own refugee communities.

The Council’s refugee experts conclude that “[t]hese vulnerable refugees deserve our protection, and we know they can be resettled safely using current security screening and vetting processes. Denying them protection, or limiting protection to those who are Christian only, would be devastating to those who most need our compassion, and it would provide a public relations victory of sorts to ISIS and others who seek to justify their terrorism using cultural and religious propaganda.”

Protecting the persecuted, and resettling vulnerable refugees, are strong U.S. commitments that must not be rejected.  Our nation is better than that.

White House Resources on Syrian Refugees: https://www.whitehouse.gov/campaign/resources-on-syrian-refugees

UN Security Council Holds Inaugural Meeting on LGBT Issues

Photo: Lauren Wainwright

Repost from statement issued by U.S. Department of State

Today, members of the UN Security Council held their first Arria-formula meeting on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) issues, particularly in the context of ISIL’s crimes against LGBT individuals in Iraq and Syria. This historic event recognizes that the issue of LGBT rights has a place in the UN Security Council.

Around the world, the UN has documented thousands of cases of individuals killed or injured in brutal attacks simply because they are LGBT or perceived to be LGBT. This abhorrent practice is particularly widespread in ISIL-seized territory in Iraq and Syria, where these violent extremists proudly target and kill LGBT individuals or those accused of being so. No one should be harmed or have their basic human rights denied because of who they are and who they love.

We would like to thank Chile for co-sponsoring this event with us. The United States will continue to raise the plight of targeted LGBT individuals around the world and work to protect their basic human rights.

For more info:

“Timeline of Publicized Executions for “Indecent Behavior” by IS Militias” published by ILGHRC

“First-Ever Security Council Briefing Focuses on LGBTI Rights Abuses” IGLHRC

Witch-hunt in Iraq

Repost from BBC News

Iraqi law enforcement agencies are involved in the systematic and deadly persecution of gay men and women there, a BBC investigation has revealed.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of gay people have been killed in recent years, activists say, while the Western-backed government turns a blind eye – or worse. The UN tells the BBC that neglecting these acts of violence makes the Iraqi state a perpetrator in the crimes. Read the full story at BBC News

Protection Concerns and Vulnerabilities for LGBT Iraqis

Blog Posting Written by: Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, July 2012

In March of 2012, U.S. and international media outlets reported a renewed wave of violence against LGBT individuals inside Iraq. Since that time, the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) has conducted nearly 50 interviews (and counting) with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Iraqis who fear persecution and/or face serious protection concerns inside Iraq because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. About 45 interviewees identify as gay males and two are transgender persons, assigned female but identifying as male.

The Current Situation on the Ground for Gay Iraqi Men:

Protection concerns and vulnerabilities vary within the gay Iraqi community depending on whether the man is able to, or chooses to, hide any outward manifestation of his sexual orientation. Those that suppress any outward manifestation of their sexuality do not face immediate physical danger. Most are able to maintain jobs and leave their homes without facing serious protection concerns, but cite the psychological aspects of hiding a huge part of their identity as unbearable, and suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts. Additionally, all fear being “outed” and discovered by their families who may become suspicious of their sexual orientation because the men have never been married, or have been married but are now divorced.

Those whose sexual orientation is either known to their families or the general public face severe outward, physical harm, in addition to severe psychological trauma. A small number of the men interviewed were put under house arrest by family members after their sexual identity became known. This often includes severe beatings and intense pressure to marry in order to cover up any scandal. Other men were beaten by family members, mostly fathers and brothers, but then immediately kicked out of their homes with nowhere to go. This forced them to live house-to-house, depending on sympathetic family members or friends. Even those with relatively safe housing do not leave their homes, unless it is absolutely necessary, out of fear of being harassed, found by family members wanting to harm them or picked up by police or security forces. A large number of men have been subjected to severe sexual violence, including rape, from family members, police, security forces, and members of the larger community. Many also reported physical violence at the hands of these perpetrators, and, to a lesser extent, militant groups like Jeash Al-Mahdi or Al-Haqq. Like those who have not been “outed,” a disturbing number of gay men, with whom IRAP spoke, wished they were dead, could change their sexual orientation or be “normal.”

Death and life in Iraq: Obama death cabs, vampires, Ministries, and murder

The following is a piece was written by Scott Long, visiting fellow at the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, for his blog Paper Bird

If you want to know what life and death are like in Iraq, here’s a story. When a colleague and I went there during the killing campaign in 2009, among those we met were three men, best friends, all calling themselves “gay” in English, though two had wives.  I’ll name them (as I did in HRW’s report of that year) Hamid, Majid, and Idris. Hamid could barely talk to us: he’d developed a severe speech impediment after his partner’s murder, three weeks before. Armed, black-masked raiders had taken the man from his parents’ home. The next day, his corpse was found thrown in the garbage, castrated, with his throat torn out.

The following night, they came for Hamid.

They entered my house and they saw my mother, and one of them said: “Where’s your faggot son?” There were five men. Their faces were covered. Fortunately I wasn’t there but my mother called me after they left, in tears.

He went into hiding. His two friends took care of him. Their homes had been raided too, but they’d escaped; the three moved from cheap hotel to cheap hotel, till they got our phone numbers through some still-serving grapevine.

We were trying to help the most endangered men we encountered get out of Iraq. We offered to assist the three — we almost begged — but they hesitated. They wanted to be sure they would stay together, wherever they were ultimately accepted as refugees. The two married men wanted to bring their wives.  I could promise all that with reasonable certainty; but I couldn’t promise that, if they filed refugee claims based on sexual orientation, their wives wouldn’t be told the grounds. They went back to Baghdad to consider it;  after a week or two we couldn’t reach them by phone anymore. It was one of the worst stories we heard in Iraq, made worse by the fact that we couldn’t do enough. Continue reading

Severe Human Rights Abuses against LGBT People Documented in State Department Report to Congress

Washington, DC – March 11, 2010 – The Council for Global Equality applauds this year’s State Department human rights report to Congress for underscoring the clear and growing crisis in human rights abuse directed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people worldwide, and urges the use of diplomacy to counter this trend.

In introducing the report, Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, singled out the case of Uganda, where introduction of a draconian anti-gay bill has resulted in serious abuse directed against Uganda’s LGBT community.  The report further documents LGBT-related incidents in almost every country in the world, including a range of cases involving arbitrary arrest and detention, police abuse, rape, and murder.  For instance, the report notes serious assaults against LGBT individuals in Jamaica, “including arbitrary detention, mob attacks, stabbings, harassment of homosexual patients by hospital and prison staff, and targeted shootings of such persons.”  In Iraq, the report notes that “numerous press reports indicate that some victims were assaulted and murdered by having their anuses glued shut or their genitals cut off and stuffed down their throats until they suffocated.”  The report highlights numerous instances in which police and other authorities have failed to investigate or prosecute such incidents.

Council Chair Mark Bromley, while recognizing that the State Department report examines a broad range of human rights concerns impacting various minority communities, nonetheless emphasized that “the level of reporting on LGBT abuses this year is remarkably detailed and truly commendable, and unfortunately this new level of detail shows just how dangerous it is for LGBT individuals to go about their daily lives as ordinary citizens in so many parts of the world.”  For the first time ever, most of the reports have a dedicated section examining “societal abuses, discrimination, and acts of violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”  Bromley insisted that “the report makes clear that LGBT rights are firmly rooted in basic human rights protections and that those protections are under severe attack in the world today.

Senior Council adviser and former U.S. Ambassador Michael Guest applauded “President Obama’s and Secretary Clinton’s principled belief that the human rights of LGBT people cannot be separated from those of all of society.”  Emphasizing that “many of the most egregious abuses have been committed in countries considered to be friends and allies of the United States,” he urged that the State Department develop strategies to counter intolerance and homophobia in every region, drawing on all the tools of American diplomacy.

Julie Dorf, another senior adviser to the Council, noted that “the Council has been working closely with the State Department over the past year to help move the Department’s human rights bureau from a traditional human rights reporting agenda to an active, human rights protection agenda.”  Dorf explained that “in an ironic and unfortunate way, the intensity of the homophobia surrounding the ‘kill the gays’ bill in Uganda has helped raise awareness within the State Department, within Congress and within the international community more generally on the global impact of LGBT discrimination and abuse.”

Excerpts of the report’s findings on LGBT issues in every country can be found on the Council’s website at www.globalequality.org.