Council for Global Equality

Conference on LGBT Rights

At the invitation of the Dutch Government and Dutch foreign assistance provider HIVOS, the Council’s Senior Advisor, former U.S. Ambassador Michael Guest, was a keynote speaker at a mid-June conference in the Netherlands on how national efforts to achieve LGBT human rights can intersect.  The conference, held at the historic Peace Palace in The Hague, brought together activists from five continents.  Guest's comments focused largely on the extent to which the Obama Administration can be expected to play a leadership role in advancing LGBT rights around the globe.  Click here to read his remarks.

President Obama Signs Memorandum Granting Partial Benefits to LGBT Employees of Federal Government

Washington, DC, June17, 2009 – During a White House ceremony in the Oval Office today,President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum granting limited domesticpartnership benefits to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employeesof the federal government, including U.S. diplomats serving in the country’smany embassies and missions around the world. In a written statement, President Obama recognized that it was the lackof such benefits in the State Department that forced Michael Guest, the country’sfirst Senate-confirmed, openly gay U.S. Ambassador and now a Senior Advisor tothe Council for Global Equality, to leave his diplomatic career, “because hebelieved that the country he served was failing to implement the principles ofequality it espoused abroad.”  Read Complete Press Release

Read White House Press Announcement

Read White House statement by the President on the Presidential Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination

U.S. House of Representatives Approves LGBT Provisions in Foreign Relations Authorization Act (HR 2410)

Washington, DC, June 11, 2009 – Late yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010‐11. Importantly, the Act (HR 2410) has groundbreaking provisions that will strengthen the State Department’s attention to serious human rights abuses directed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals worldwide. Read Complete Press Release

House Foreign Affairs Committee Marks Up Foreign Relations Authorization Act (HR 2410)

On May 20, the House Foreign Affairs Committee marked up the State Department Authorization bill (HR 2410).  Section 333 of the bill contains provisions that instruct the State Department: 

• to create one or more positions within the Human Rights Bureau to monitor international LGBT concerns;
• to work through U.S. embassies to encourage countries to repeal or reform laws that criminalize homosexuality or consensual homosexual conduct or that otherwise restrict fundamental human rights;
• to improve human rights reporting on LGBT issues, with a new requirement to include transgender concerns; and
• to include LGBT issues in human rights training courses for Foreign Service Officers.

The bill was approved by the full Committee and the finalbill should now go to the House floor in June for consideration.  A parallel bill is being introduced in theU.S. Senate.  Full story

View our press statement on State Authorization Bill (HR 2410)

Read  more about the bill

View a pre-markup version of the bill

View The Council for Global Equality's Letter to Chairman Berman

View Michael Guest's Letter to Chairman Berman

The Council for global equality participates in a "wORLD congress on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity"

The Council for Global Equality participated in a “WorldCongress on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” in Paris inMay.  The Congress was organized by theFrench, Norwegian and Dutch governments and was attended by representatives ofthe 67 countries that have so far joined the UNGeneral Assembly Statement on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and GenderIdentity.  The Obama Administrationannounced its support for the UN Statement in March and was represented at the Paris Congress by Atul Keshap, an official in theInternational Organizations Bureau at the State Department in Washington. Full story

UN Statement affirms the universality of human rights for all

In March, the Obama Administration announced the U.S.government’s support for a UNStatement on “Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity,”reversing one of the final decisions of the Bush Administration. The UNStatement affirms the universality of human rights for all, regardless ofsexual orientation or gender identity, and calls for the decriminalization ofhomosexuality.  The Council applaudedthis important reversal of position. Full story

View our press statement on the U.S. move to support LGBT human rights at the UN. 

U.S. HOUSE PASSES FULLY INCLUSIVE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT

The Council for Global Equality applauds the passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of a fully inclusive Local LawEnforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which is also known to many as the Matthew Shepard Act.  The vote at the end of April was 249-175, and with bi-partisan backing the bill now moves to the U.S. Senate for consideration. Full story

STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASES ITS COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES FOR 2008

In the Human Rights Report for 2008 (released on February 25, 2009), the State Department once again lists human rights abuses relating to sexual orientation and gender identity in well over 100 countries worldwide. The reported violations this year include murders, extreme police violence, arrests of individuals based only on their sexual orientation or gender identity, state-sponsored harassment, extortion, and abuse in detention, and the denial of health care, housing, education and other social services.  The Council for Global Equality annually compiles a list of the references to sexual orientation and gender identity-related abuses and protections in the State Department’s annual report. We analyze the trends in the report and work with the staff at the State Department on continuing to improve their reporting. This year, we compiled our “Top Ten Opportunities for the US to Respond,” to give concrete examples of how the U.S. government can move from a reporting agenda to a protection agenda – for LGBT people at home and abroad.  

View our press statement on the State Department's 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.