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U.S. Falls Behind Other Nations on LGBT Issues

For Immediate Release: November 5, 2010

Contact: Mark Bromley
202-607-6813

Geneva, November 5 – A high-level US government delegation today defended the country’s human rights record before the Human Rights Council at the UN in Geneva. In preparation for the review, the Council for Global Equality submitted a report to the US government and to the UN to emphasize the lack of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans. The Council is pleased that during the meeting today, known as the “Universal Periodic Review,” the US government freely admitted that the US civil rights record is incomplete and that LGBT Americans are among those who are still fighting to achieve full equality.

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Council’s Senior Advisor to Lead U.S. Delegation to International Human Rights Conference

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photo: Lage Carlson
The State Department named former U.S. Ambassador Michael Guest, who also serves as a Senior Advisor to the Council, as the head of the U.S. delegation to an upcoming human rights conference in Warsaw, Poland in October.  At this annual human rights meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which includes Eastern and Western Europe and North America, the United States will be speak out against violations of the rights to freedom of speech and association, while also highlighting patterns of extreme violence against minority communities, including the increasingly well-documented trend in LGBT violence and hate crime across the region.  This is the first time that the United States has included an openly gay advocate on its official delegation to the OSCE to address these alarming human rights trends.
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:Poland
 

An LGBT Response to the State Department’s UPR Report

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by Julie Dorf, Senior Advisor

The best part of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s livid reaction to the U.S. report to the United Nations on our country’s human rights record was that it put this relatively obscure international human rights instrument–known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)–into the mainstream news this week. CNN and the New York Times would otherwise never have covered the UPR submission of the United States at the UN’s Human Rights Council without a scandal to report. Brewer was furious at the inclusion of a very brief mention of the pending federal court case reviewing Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 law on immigration, through which the federal government argues that they, not the states, are responsible for immigration law.

Continue reading at Global Equality Today

 

 

The Council for Global Equality Applauds Vote Conferring UN Status on the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)

un photo - small size July 19, 2010 -- In a contentious vote, the UN today granted consultative status to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), despite strong objections from states that stand opposed to the recognition of LGBT rights at the UN. IGLHRC, a founding member of the Council, is the first LGBT group from the United States to secure this special status, and one of only a handful of LGBT groups in the world that has successfully navigated this hostile process. The Council congratulates IGLHRC and recognizes the strong leadership in support of this vote that came from the White House, the State Department, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and from leading members of Congress.

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:Switzerland, United States of America
 

"Thank You for Being Part of History's Great Moments"

Hilary Clinton June 2010June 22, 2010 -- In honor of LGBT Pride month, Secretary of State Clinton delivered a moving speech today to to a packed auditorium in the State Department. She highlighted the State Department's ongoing commitment to LGBT rights and emphatically declared that "human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights - once and for all!" She also made a number of policy announcements, including the addition of gender identity to the State Department's equal opportunity employment statement, and issued directives to all regional bureaus to expand their work on LGBT issues. During the address, she personally welcomed four visiting LGBTI activists from Uganda, Cameroon, South Africa, and Malawi, who attended the speech before settling into a working meeting with the State Department's Africa Bureau. She concluded by making a personal plea to do more for LGBT youth, and she thanked everyone for "being a part of history's great moments."

The event was co-sponsored by GLIFFA, and also included comments by USAID Administer Shaw and Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Eric Schwartz. A brief panel discussion followed the remarks and included Deputy Assistant Secretary Dan Baer, as well as the Council's Chair, Mark Bromley, and IGLHRC's Executive Director, Cary Alan Johnson.

Watch the full U.S. State Department Pride Celebration here

 
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