New bill introduced to Senate prioritizes LGBT rights in foreign policy

A new bill calling for the creation of a special envoy for LGBT rights was introduced in the Senate on Thursday, by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), and officially unveiled on Friday.

The bill, titled “The International Human Rights Defense Act,” is backed by 20 co-sponsors — all Democrats — and would make the protection of LGBT rights an official priority of the US government.

If passed, the bill would not only create the envoy’s office, it would make it the responsibility of the State Department to “devise a global strategy” that would aid in preventing discrimination and violence against LGBT communities. It would also task the department with building relationships with international LGBT advocates, like the American Jewish World Service, which is the fourth largest international funder of LGBT rights.

“Around the world, LGBT people are ostracized, threatened and assaulted just because of who they are and whom they love,” Ruth Messinger, president of AJWS, said in a press release. “As Jews, we understand all too well the reality of living in countries in which states sanction hate against minorities and trample their rights. We cannot stand idly by as this continues to happen, and we urge our government to do all it can to protect the human rights of LGBT people worldwide. We applaud Senator Markey for introducing this bill and call on Congress to act quickly and pass it.”

When the United Nations issued its first report on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in December of 2011, it found that there was no region in the world in which homophobic and transphobic violence was absent. In each region, the report recorded acts ranging “from murder, kidnappings, assaults and rapes to psychological threats and arbitrary deprivations of liberty,” as well as “street violence and other spontaneous acts in public settings” as part of organized abuse.

Those perpetrating the abuse were identified as religious extremists, paramilitary groups, neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists.

“Violence against LGBT persons tends to be especially vicious compared to other bias-motivated crimes,” the report detailed. “According to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), homophobic hate crimes and incidents often show a high degree of cruelty and brutality and include beatings, torture, mutilation, castration and sexual assault.”

The United Nations also noted that quantifying homophobic and transphobic violence is difficult because “few States have systems in place for monitoring, recording and reporting these incidents. Even where systems exist, incidents may go unreported or are misreported because victims distrust the police, are afraid of reprisals or threats to privacy, are reluctant to identify themselves as LGBT or because those responsible for registering the incidents fail to recognize motives of perpetrators.”

Over two years later — and despite increasing success for LGBT movements in parts of the Americas and Europe, with respect to marriage equality — it seems little has changed.

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In the United States, LGBT rights advocates have become exasperated by the government’s response, or lack thereof, to an anti-homosexuality law enacted in February in Uganda — one of five countries in which a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person can be put to death.

Russia also provoked outrage last summer when it implemented a national ban on “homosexual propaganda” that spurred international boycotts of Russian goods, controversy over the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and sent waves of homophobic violence across the republic.

There are still 77 countries — or 82, depending on how you think about it — in which consenting adults can be arrested for having sex with a person of the same gender. The total number of countries still spans across every region of the world.

According to Erasing 76 Crimes — an organization that tracks the “human toll of 76 countries’ anti-gay laws” and “the struggle to repeal them” — there are currently at least 102 people in prison for being gay, with 75 awaiting trial.

The organization keeps a running list, complete with names, locations, charges and sentences, of every person imprisoned for homosexuality worldwide for, which there is documentation. The list does note that “177 people is probably an extreme understatement of the number of people who are behind bars or awaiting trial on anti-homosexuality charges, but finding out about specific cases is difficult, especially in countries without a free press.”

Most recently updated on May 16, 2014, the list included 14 people awaiting the outcome of their trials in Uganda and Zambia — all potentially facing life sentences.

The newly revealed International Human Rights Defense Act will face the Senate before heading for the Republican-controlled house, where no House member has yet commented on whether or not they intend to sponsor a companion bill.

“For the United States to hold true to our commitment to defending the human rights of all people around the world, we must stand with the LGBT community in their struggle for recognition and equality everywhere,” Senator Markey told BuzzFeed. “By fostering a coordinated effort across the federal government and relevant agencies, we can meet the enormous challenge before us and work to ensure equality for all people around the globe.”