WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Council for Global Equality (CGE), a staffed coalition of more than 45 U.S.-based organizations that work at the intersection of U.S. foreign policy and the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons, welcomed the bicameral introduction of the Protecting Human Rights and Public Health in Foreign Assistance Act. Led by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) in the U.S. Senate and Representatives Meng, Frankel, DeGette, Jayapal, Jacobs, and Meeks in the U.S. House of Representatives, the legislation would block the Trump administration’s draconian expanded Global Gag Rules, a sweepinging policy finalized in late January that weaponizes U.S. foreign assistance to restrict not only abortion-related services and speech, but also those serving or recognizing transgender, nonbinary, and intersex persons as well as those seen as promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The expanded Global Gag Rules pose far-reaching and life-threatening consequences for LGBTQI+ people around the world, as well as women, girls, and other marginalized communities. By conditioning funding on entities’ agreement to limit services, partnerships, and speech, recipients of U.S. foreign assistance from the Department of State are forced to choose between accepting critical funding and providing comprehensive, evidence-based care and full recognition of the human rights of others. In practice, this undermines HIV prevention and treatment programs, access to sexual and reproductive health services, and broader efforts to combat stigma, discrimination, and violence, particularly in countries where LGBTQI+ people already face criminalization and systemic barriers to care.
Previous iterations of the policy disrupted essential health systems and civil society networks, often with deadly consequences for LGBTQI+ persons, and this expanded version risks deepening those harms manyfold. In just one recent example, a key partner in Rwanda was told that the targeted HIV programs they were running would violate the DEI restrictions. They had to give up U.S. funding, and their programs for key populations have ended, creating gaps in care and threatening decades of progress to end the HIV epidemic.
Using taxpayer money to export the Trump administration’s anti-trans, anti-science, and anti-abortion ideological agenda isn’t just immoral – it’s antithetical to efficient, effective, and rights-based foreign assistance,” said Beirne Roose-Snyder, Senior Policy Fellow of the Council for Global Equality. “We are grateful to Representatives Meng, Frankel, DeGette, Jayapal, Jacobs and Meeks and Senators Shaheen and Rosen for their leadership in introducing this bill, which would block President Trump’s malicious, so-called ‘Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance’ policy. No one should be forced to choose between receiving U.S. foreign assistance to deliver lifesaving services for some and standing up for public health and the human rights of all, without exception.