Today the Department of State released the third public report on the U.S. government’s implementation of the 2021 Presidential Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons (LGBTQI+) Persons Around the World. The report highlights our efforts to promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons globally in 2023.
Promoting and protecting the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons is a U.S. foreign policy priority. It remains vitally important that we address the violence and discrimination faced by LGBTQI+ persons while also acknowledging how characteristics such as race and ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, and national origin can further exacerbate one’s vulnerability to violence and discrimination, and impact equal enjoyment of an individual’s human rights. As the report demonstrates, the U.S. government advances these priorities by supporting efforts to end the criminalization of LGBTQI+ status and conduct around the globe, seeking to protect vulnerable LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers, providing foreign assistance to protect the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons and to advance non-discrimination protections, responding meaningfully to human rights abuses of LGBTQI+ persons abroad, and engaging international partners and organizations in the fight against LGBTQI+ discrimination. Collectively, these efforts advance the goal of ending violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex characteristics. Equality and equity build stronger societies for all.
LGBTQI+ human rights defenders and civil society organizations are critical stakeholders and leaders in global efforts to advance respect for the human rights of all people. They are our partners in the work laid out in this report, as are the governments and multilateral institutions with which we work closely to catalyze progress. By releasing this report, we aim to inspire other governments around the world to undertake similar actions to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons.
The report is available to the public on the LGBTQI+ Human Rights page. For further information please contact DRL-Press@state.gov.
