In a rare high-level event at the State Department last month, Jessica Stern, special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons, gave a glimpse into the work she and her office are doing to carry out President Joe Biden's foreign policy mandate in 2021.
Stern called the "Convening on U.S. Foreign Policy: National Security, Inclusive Development, and the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons" a "historic event." The Pride Month discussion took place June 27 and included three cabinet officials.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassadors Katherine Tai, the country's trade representative, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the United Nations joined Stern at the event.
The afternoon also included discussions not open to the press with some diplomats, such as U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti; Suzanne Goldberg, senior adviser to the undersecretary of state for civil security, democracy, and human rights; and Assistant U.S. Secretary of Health Admiral Rachel Levine, a transgender woman; among others, reported the Washington Blade.
In 2021, Biden placed LGBTQ rights at the forefront of the United States foreign policy, the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.
For the first time, Stern, a lesbian who previously led Outright International, hosted high-level Biden administration officials, LGBTQ and human rights leaders, and some reporters at the State Department for the convening and reception.
Stern also announced the release of the third annual "Progress Report on the Implementation of the Presidential Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons Around the World."
Previous reports were published on the State Department's LGBTQI+ Human Rights page. The page also links to past statements from the department and other government agencies, but there is no information about Stern's international trips and meetings with LGBTQ activists and government officials in other countries or speeches given, videos, photos, or links to the office's social media accounts.
Since taking office September 27, 2021, Stern has been working with other agencies and departments to carry out Biden's foreign policy to include LGBTQ people in U.S. international relations.
The lack of information about Stern's work prompted Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan national security think tank, the Center to Advance Security in America, to file a lawsuit, reported The Christian Post. The conservative news outlet reported that the State Department failed to produce documents about Stern and her office's work from two Freedom of Information Act requests submitted in March.
The B.A.R. reached out to CASA to request a copy of the lawsuit after not being able to find it through online searches. CASA did not respond to the request by press time.
The convening
In her opening remarks, Stern called LGBTQ people an early warning of danger for democracy.
"We often say that LGBTQI-plus people are a canary in the coal mine," she said, "but it's worth repeating when we see politicians or special interest groups target LGBTQI-plus persons, the human rights of all suffer and everybody loses."
"We cannot simply talk about the world today without also talking about actions that we have to take to change trajectories toward justice and equality," Stern continued.
The convening was the first time three cabinet members came together to speak about LGBTQ rights in foreign policy to "collectively articulate a whole of government approach explaining why this work is so essential," Stern said, addressing the audience.
Reading a statement from Biden for the event, Stern quoted the president, "The contributions of LGBTQI-plus people have been critical to the progress we have made so far in the pursuit of equality, justice, and inclusion. Their bravery is a source of inspiration and hope to all those seeking a life true to who they are."
The challenges LGBTQ people face "living authentically" is "unacceptable," Biden stated. (On July 21, Biden announced he would not be seeking reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him atop the Democratic Party ticket.)
Blinken, Thomas-Greenfield, and Stern all spoke about the global backlash against LGBTQ people, as well as victories. They noted Russia's labeling the global LGBTQ movement as an "extreme terrorist organization," Hungary's systematic oppression of LGBTQ people, and Uganda's passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, which grabbed headlines last year.
Blinken pointed to wins in the last two years including the decriminalization of homosexuality in seven countries and marriage equality being passed in Greece, Lichtenstein, and Thailand.
Thomas-Greenfield added the good news she and Stern had at the U.N. last year. In 2023, three major actions protecting LGBTQ people globally took place. The historic Arria Formula meeting at the Security Council, as the B.A.R. covered; the first-ever adoption of a resolution on intersex persons at the Human Rights Council; and preservation of LGBTQ language in the text of a resolution on elections at the Economic and Social Council.
"These are victories for human rights, but they're also victories for democracy and development, national security and good governance," Thomas-Greenfield told the audience.
"Studies have found that greater inclusion of LGBTQI-plus people in emerging economies has been positively associated with a country's economic development and its democratic norms," she continued. "On the flip side, human rights violations experienced by the LGBTQI-plus people diminish economic output and provide a bellwether of democratic backsliding and increased risk to other marginalized communities."
Blinken reiterated the U.S.'s responsibility to defend LGBTQ people everywhere.
"LGBTQI+ rights are human rights. Our government has a responsibility to defend them, to promote them — here and everywhere," said Blinken. "Our ability to stand up for human rights and democracy internationally is also tied directly to whether we're strong on these fronts here in our own country."
Inclusive foreign policy
Tai demonstrated how her office identified and implemented inclusive policies to benefit LGBTQ Americans and other underrepresented communities during a fireside conversation with Stern.
Unpacking economics and trade, she and her team asked, "What is the economy?" and "Who is the economy?" she explained.
"The answer to that is our economy is made up of our people," she said. "At root, the point of economic policy is to create more benefits and opportunity for your people."
She and her team examined the distributional effects and impacts of trade policies through that lens. They discovered past ways of doing trade have been "really uneven," she said.
"Some parts of America have been harmed by trade policies," she said, noting the initial assessment showed women, communities of color, non-college-educated white men, and other communities were negatively affected. "Where others have benefited."
Tai explained her team retooled how they approach business and trade with diverse communities in mind and how they trained trade partners who opted in how to be more inclusive in their business and trade policies.
However, not every U.S. trade partner bought into the new more inclusive approach to trade.
Tai pointed to Uganda as an example. She said removing the East African country's eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act — and other sanctions and restrictions enforced by the U.S. following the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 — is "a sad story on so many levels."
The U.S., along with the World Bank and other partners, implemented sanctions and other restrictions on the East African country, the B.A.R. previously reported.
Stern told the audience she was in the room with Tai's team and Ugandan officials when the country was stripped of its AGOA eligibility, which provided billions in financial support to the East African country.
"It was probably one of the harder meetings I've ever done," Stern said, affirming that Tai's team encouraged Uganda to change its policies and remains open to talk with Ugandan officials. "There was no joy in removing Uganda's eligibility for AGOA status."
Stern noted that the decision went beyond the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, to Uganda's "broader human rights situation" and for the country to "take corrective action," she told the audience.
Additionally, the report made it clear that various agencies and departments working with partners in Uganda, including LGBTQ organizations, sought to redirect funding directly to stakeholders to reduce the economic impact due to the Ugandan government's decision.
"We have the right to require respect for these types of values if you are going to enjoy the preferences of a special relationship with the United States," Tai said, stating it's the U.S.'s values that we "reward in our partners."
"I don't see it as politicization at all," she added. "It is about how economic programs have to reflect the values of the society."
Standing strong for human rights
Thomas-Greenfield added since Uganda's passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, there have been "hundreds of evictions, arrests, and cases of violence against the LGBTQI-plus community." Noting that Uganda wasn't alone, she talked about dire human rights abuses against LGBTQ people in Afghanistan and Russia.
"Despite these challenges, the LGBTQI-plus community has shown remarkable bravery and resilience," Thomas-Greenfield said. "We have seen all over the world the impact of their advocacy."
However, she said, "That's not to say this work is easy. In fact, it's just the opposite."
She noted the opposition to gay U.S. Ambassadors David Pressman in Hungary and Randy Berry in Namibia.
Last month, Pressman marched in solidarity with 30,000 Hungarians in the Budapest Pride parade and spoke to embassy and Hungarian LGBTQ activists June 16.
Berry was the first-ever U.S. LGBTQ envoy from 2015-2017. The lifelong diplomat changed attitudes in Namibia, Thomas-Greenfield said. The Southwest African country's government first denied a visa to his husband when he was confirmed as ambassador to the country on September 20, 2022.
"Now Randy and his husband are welcome in the community in Namibia," Thomas-Greenfield said. "They are, in fact, an asset."
Namibia's Supreme Court recently decriminalized homosexuality June 21, the B.A.R. reported.
Persistent challenges
Asylum and refugees continue to be a challenge for the Biden administration. Multiple federal agencies and departments, including the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, worked to improve protections for LGBTQ refugees and access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, according to the report.
One of the new mechanisms, Blinken briefly mentioned in his speech, is the Welcome Corps, where groups of organizations or citizens band together to sponsor a refugee, which the B.A.R. previously reported.
However, the administration's progress has been disappointing and frustrating for some LGBTQ asylum and refugee experts.
Steve Roth, executive director of the Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration, who attended the convening and reception, said, "The implementation has been slower than we would like to see in some key areas, including on the refugee and asylum front."
Roth was critical of Biden's asylum efforts, especially the president's recent executive action at the U.S.-Mexico border June 4, whereby ports of entry are closed at midnight.
In a statement from ORAM last month, Roth called the new policy "unlawful" and that it would harm LGBTQ asylum seekers and other vulnerable individuals seeking refuge from persecution.
"The Biden administration has been very aggressive, especially last year, trying to put policies in place to limit asylum," Roth told the B.A.R. July 12.
"President Biden's unlawful policy flies in the face of U.S. refugee law and removes the critical protections and paths to safety of these asylum seekers, leaving them vulnerable and with no resources," Roth wrote in the statement, calling on Biden to reverse the policy.
Roth is aware that the Biden administration faced a serious challenge to rebuild the asylum and refugee system after former President Donald Trump's administration dismantled it. It "has taken time," he said, acknowledging that there have been "complexities that weren't anticipated."
On Thursday, July 18, Trump accepted his third Republican nomination as the party's presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, less than a week after a July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Despite Roth's criticisms of the Biden administration, he said "anyone who is working for the equal rights and safety and protection of LGBT communities, both in the U.S. and around the world" should be "terrified" by a second Trump administration, which he believes "will put in place policies that will hurt us."
"We're very fortunate that both the Biden administration and before that, the Obama administration, have been the two most welcoming and supportive administrations in history toward LGBTQI-plus people, including on the international front," Roth said.
Thomas-Greenfield, in her closing remarks, said, "There's so much work to be done, but I am really proud that the international LGBTQI-plus community has an ally in the Biden administration."
Only the first hour of the convening was open to the press and livestreamed on the department's website and social media channels.
The recorded convening (begins around 51:14 and ends around 1:58) includes opening remarks by Stern and Blinken, Stern and Tai's conversation, and Thomas-Greenfield's speech.
Got international LGBTQ news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp/Signal: 415-517-7239, or [email protected]
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