What This Bill Does
This bill creates a permanent government position called a Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Peoples within the State Department. The Special Envoy will lead U.S. government efforts to address discrimination, violence, and criminalization of LGBTQI+ people around the world. The bill also requires the government to develop a strategy and provide assistance to address these human rights issues internationally.
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Who It Affects
- The Secretary of State and the State Department
- The President (who appoints the Special Envoy)
- The U.S. Agency for International Development
- Foreign governments and their militaries and police forces
- Nongovernmental organizations working on LGBTQI+ human rights
- Federal contractors and grant recipients with international programs
- Congress (which receives briefings and reviews strategies)
- LGBTQI+ people facing persecution internationally
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Key Provisions
- The President appoints a Special Envoy for LGBTQI+ human rights who reports to the Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and can hold the rank of Ambassador (Sec. 4(a))
- The Special Envoy directs all State Department activities, policies, programs, and funding related to LGBTQI+ human rights and leads coordination across all federal agencies on these matters (Sec. 4(c)(2)(A))
- The Special Envoy must develop a global strategy within 180 days and update it annually for five years to prevent and respond to criminalization, discrimination, and violence against LGBTQI+ people internationally (Sec. 4(e)(1))
- The Special Envoy must provide Congress with annual briefings on the status of LGBTQI+ human rights globally and U.S. government programs addressing these issues (Sec. 4(d))
- The Secretary of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development can fund programs to prevent and respond to LGBTQI+ discrimination and violence, including health services, legal support, and leadership training for LGBTQI+ activists (Sec. 6)
- The State Department's human rights reports to Congress must include information about criminalization, discrimination, and violence against LGBTQI+ people in each country (Sec. 5)
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What Changes
A new permanent Special Envoy position is created within the State Department focused solely on LGBTQI+ human rights internationally. The government must now develop written global strategies on this issue and report annually to Congress. The State Department's country human rights reports must include specific information about LGBTQI+ discrimination and violence. Federal contractors and grant recipients working internationally must establish policies protecting LGBTQI+ staff from discrimination and violence in the workplace.
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Important Definitions
- **Gender identity:** A person's internal sense of their own gender, including how they present themselves, regardless of what sex they were assigned at birth.
- **Intersex:** People born with sex characteristics (such as reproductive organs, hormone levels, or chromosomes) that don't fit typical categories of male or female bodies.
- **LGBTQI+:** Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex individuals.
- **Sexual orientation:** A person's actual or perceived attraction to people of the same gender, different gender, or both genders.
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Effective Date
Not specified in bill text
II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. 1007
To establish in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of
the Department of State a Special Envoy for the Human Rights of
LGBTQI+ Peoples, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 28, 2023
Mr.
MARKEY
(for
himself,
Mr.
CARDIN,
Mrs.
FEINSTEIN,
Mr.
HICKENLOOPER, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Ms. STABENOW, Mr.
CARPER, Ms. SMITH, Ms. HASSAN, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. KAINE, Mr.
MURPHY, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. WELCH, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. KELLY,
Mr. SANDERS, Mr. PADILLA, Mrs. MURRAY, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mrs.
SHAHEEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To establish in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights,
and Labor of the Department of State a Special Envoy
for the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Peoples, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Human
4
Rights Defense Act of 2023’’.
5
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•S 1007 IS
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
1
Congress makes the following findings:
2
(1) Around the world, LGBTQI+ people face
3
violence, stigma, and discrimination based on their
4
sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex character-
5
istics.
6
(2) Sixty-seven countries have national laws
7
that criminalize same-sex relations and at least 42
8
United Nations member states have legal barriers
9
for freedom of expression on issues related to sexual
10
and gender diversity. That is equal to roughly 35
11
percent of United Nations member states.
12
(3) Eleven countries have jurisdictions in which
13
the death penalty can be imposed for private, con-
14
sensual same-sex sexual activity.
15
(4) Despite recent progress made toward de-
16
criminalization, marriage equality, and legal gender
17
recognition, several countries have introduced anti-
18
LGBTQI+ pieces of legislation that would further
19
criminalize or stigmatize LGBTQI+ peoples. This
20
includes a draconian law under review in Ghana that
21
would outlaw LGBTQI+ relationships or identities,
22
as well as actions by community allies, and bills that
23
ban so-called LGBTQI+ ‘‘propaganda’’, such as
24
those in Russia and Hungary.
25
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•S 1007 IS
(5) In anti-LGBTQI+ prosecutions, law en-
1
forcement officials, working in tandem with medical
2
personnel, use the forensically discredited practice of
3
forced anal exams to try to prove same-sex sexual
4
activity or otherwise to torture or intimidate detain-
5
ees. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Tor-
6
ture has described forced anal examinations as a
7
form of torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading
8
treatment and the United Nations Office of the
9
High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a re-
10
port in 2015 calling for governments to ban the
11
practice. Human Rights Watch has documented sev-
12
eral cases in which forced anal examinations have
13
been used to sentence individuals for same-sex sex-
14
ual conduct, including in Uzbekistan and Egypt.
15
(6) The closing of civil society space, particu-
16
larly with the increased passage or enforcement of
17
laws that prevent the registration or operations of
18
nongovernmental
organizations,
discriminates
19
against LGBTQI+ human rights defenders and is a
20
violation of freedom of association. This includes the
21
wrongful closure of Sexual Minorities Uganda
22
(SMUG), a leading nongovernmental organization
23
committed to protecting and advancing the human
24
rights of LGBTQI+ individuals in Uganda.
25
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•S 1007 IS
(7) Extreme violence and insecurity in El Sal-
1
vador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras has
2
driven LGBTQI+ people to flee their countries of
3
origin to the United States for protection. At the
4
United States border with Mexico, LGBTQI+ asy-
5
lum seekers face additional violence and many have
6
been returned to face persecution in their home
7
countries or in third countries that are not safe.
8
(8) Studies have shown that structural risks,
9
including country-level policies, prosecutions, and
10
legal barriers, might contribute to higher HIV preva-
11
lence among LGBTQI+ people, especially gay, bi-
12
sexual, and other men who have sex with men. De-
13
criminalization, decreasing enforcement, and stigma
14
reduction are necessary to effective control of HIV.
15
(9) The Trans Murder Monitoring Project,
16
which monitors homicides of transgender individuals,
17
documented at least 327 trans and gender-diverse
18
people killed between October 1, 2021, and Sep-
19
tember 30, 2022. Of these cases, 68 percent of all
20
of the murders occurred in Latin America and the
21
Caribbean, with 29 percent of the total occurring in
22
Brazil.
23
(10) Intersex people experience prejudice and
24
discrimination, including the common performance
25
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5
•S 1007 IS
of medically unnecessary surgeries without their con-
1
sent or approval, because their bodies do not con-
2
form to other people’s expectations about sex and
3
gender.
4
(11) Violence and discrimination based on sex-
5
ual orientation and gender identity are documented
6
in the Department of State’s annual Country Re-
7
ports on Human Rights Practices. The report cov-
8
ering 2021 continues to show a clear pattern of
9
human rights violations or abuses in every region of
10
the world based on sexual orientation, gender iden-
11
tity, or sex characteristics. These violations or
12
abuses include murder, rape, torture, death threats,
13
extortion, and imprisonment, as well as loss of em-
14
ployment, housing, access to health care, and other
15
forms of societal stigma and discrimination. The re-
16
ports further document LGBTQI+-specific restric-
17
tions on basic freedoms of assembly, press, and
18
speech in every region of the world.
19
(12) On December 6, 2011, President Barack
20
Obama released the ‘‘Presidential Memorandum—
21
International Initiatives to Advance the Human
22
Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
23
Persons’’. The memorandum directed all Federal
24
agencies engaged abroad to ensure that United
25
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•S 1007 IS
States diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and
1
protect the human rights of LGBT persons.
2
(13) On February 4, 2021, President Joe Biden
3
issued a similar memorandum, the ‘‘Memorandum
4
on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay,
5
Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons
6
Around the World’’, to promote and protect the
7
human rights of LGBTQI+ persons and establish
8
that it is the ‘‘policy of the United States to pursue
9
an end to violence and discrimination on the basis
10
of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression,
11
or sex characteristics, and to lead by the power of
12
our example in the cause of advancing the human
13
rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world’’.
14
(14) On February 23, 2015, Secretary of State
15
John Kerry appointed senior diplomat Randy Berry
16
as the Department of State’s first-ever Special
17
Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons.
18
No person was named to that position during the
19
Trump Administration.
20
(15) On June 25, 2021, President Joe Biden
21
announced the appointment of Jessica Stern to serve
22
as the United States Special Envoy to Advance the
23
Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons. She joined
24
the Department of State on September 27, 2021.
25
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•S 1007 IS
(16) On June 30, 2016, the United Nations
1
Human Rights Council passed a resolution cospon-
2
sored by the United States that established an Inde-
3
pendent Expert on violence and discrimination based
4
on sexual orientation and gender identity to help
5
monitor and track discrimination and violence expe-
6
rienced by LGBTQI+ persons around the world.
7
(17) In May 2020, the United Nations Inde-
8
pendent Expert on protection against violence and
9
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gen-
10
der identity released a report on so-called ‘‘conver-
11
sion therapy’’, which is an umbrella term used to de-
12
scribe interventions based on a belief that a person’s
13
sexual orientation or gender identity can and should
14
be changed. The report concluded that such prac-
15
tices represent significant violations of rights to per-
16
sonal autonomy, health, and free expression and are
17
‘‘by their very nature degrading, inhuman and cruel
18
and create a significant risk of torture’’. The Inde-
19
pendent Expert noted ‘‘the psychological pain and
20
suffering inflicted by practices of ‘conversion ther-
21
apy’ are deep and long-lasting and often exacerbate
22
the risk of suicide,’’ and called for a global ban on
23
conversion therapy.
24
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•S 1007 IS
(18) On June 15, 2022, President Joe Biden
1
signed an Executive Order in part directing the Sec-
2
retary of State, in collaboration with the Secretary
3
of the Treasury, the Secretary of Health and
4
Human Services, and the Administrator of the
5
United States Agency for International Develop-
6
ment, to develop an action plan to promote an end
7
to so-called ‘‘conversion therapy’’ around the world
8
and ensure that United States foreign assistance
9
dollars do not fund the practice.
10
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
11
It is the policy of the United States—
12
(1) to take effective action to prevent and re-
13
spond to discrimination and violence against all peo-
14
ple on any basis internationally, including sexual ori-
15
entation, gender identity, and sex characteristics,
16
and that human rights policy includes attention to
17
criminalization, violence, and other discrimination
18
against LGBTQI+ people;
19
(2) to systematically integrate and coordinate
20
into United States foreign policy efforts to prevent
21
and respond to criminalization, discrimination, and
22
violence against LGBTQI+ people internationally;
23
(3) to support and build local capacity in coun-
24
tries around the world, including of governments at
25
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•S 1007 IS
all levels and nongovernmental organizations, to pre-
1
vent and respond to criminalization, discrimination,
2
and violence against LGBTQI+ people internation-
3
ally;
4
(4) to consult, cooperate, coordinate, and col-
5
laborate with a wide variety of nongovernmental
6
partners, including faith-based organizations and
7
LGBTQI+-led organizations, with demonstrated ex-
8
perience in preventing and responding to criminal-
9
ization,
discrimination,
and
violence
against
10
LGBTQI+ people internationally;
11
(5) to employ a multisectoral approach to pre-
12
venting and responding to criminalization, discrimi-
13
nation, and violence against LGBTQI+ people inter-
14
nationally, including activities in the economic, edu-
15
cation, health, nutrition, legal, and judicial sectors;
16
(6) to work at all levels, from the individual to
17
the family, community, local, national, and inter-
18
national levels, to prevent and respond to criminal-
19
ization,
discrimination,
and
violence
against
20
LGBTQI+ people internationally;
21
(7) to enhance training by United States per-
22
sonnel of professional foreign military and police
23
forces and judicial officials to include appropriate
24
and thorough LGBTQI+-specific instruction on pre-
25
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•S 1007 IS
venting and responding to criminalization, discrimi-
1
nation, and violence based on sexual orientation and
2
gender identity;
3
(8) to engage non-LGBTQI+ people as allies
4
and partners, as an essential element of making sus-
5
tained reductions in criminalization, discrimination,
6
and violence against LGBTQI+ people internation-
7
ally;
8
(9) to require that all Federal contractors and
9
grant recipients awarded a contract or receiving a
10
grant, as the case may be, under an international
11
program of the United States Government establish
12
appropriate policies and take effective measures to
13
ensure the protection and safety of their staff and
14
workplace, including from discrimination and vio-
15
lence directed against LGBTQI+ people and those
16
who provide services to them;
17
(10) to exert sustained international leadership,
18
including in bilateral and multilateral fora, to pre-
19
vent and respond to criminalization, discrimination,
20
and violence against LGBTQI+ people internation-
21
ally;
22
(11) to fully implement and expand upon the
23
policies
outlined
in
the
‘‘Presidential
Memo-
24
randum—Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian,
25
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•S 1007 IS
Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex
1
Persons Around the World’’;
2
(12) to ensure that international efforts to com-
3
bat HIV/AIDS take all appropriate measures to sup-
4
port at-risk communities, including LGBTQI+ peo-
5
ple, and to create enabling legal environments for
6
these communities;
7
(13) to work with governments and nongovern-
8
mental partners around the world to develop and im-
9
plement regional strategies to decriminalize homo-
10
sexuality and to counteract other restrictions on the
11
human rights of LGBTQI+ people, including re-
12
strictions on LGBTQI+ organizations and so-called
13
LGBTQ+ propaganda laws; and
14
(14) to ensure that those who have a well-
15
founded fear of persecution on account of being
16
LGBTQI+ or supporting LGBTQI+ rights have
17
the opportunity to seek protection in the United
18
States.
19
SEC. 4. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR THE HUMAN RIGH
[Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]