USA falls behind other nations on LGBT issues

A high-level US government delegation today defended the countrys 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.

More than 30 US officials, including senior officials from eleven US departments and agencies, traveled to the UNs European headquarters to give the world "a partial snapshot" of the human rights situation in the United States. The official report that was submitted in advance of the review offers a candid discussion of LGBT rights, grounding the struggle to promote LGBT equality firmly within our countrys civil rights movement. The US report explains to the world that "in each era of our history there tends to be a group whose experience of discrimination illustrates the continuing debate among citizens about how we can build fair societies. In this era, one such group is LGBT Americans."

In response to interventions today from several countries, including Israel, Norway, Uruguay, Australia, and the United Kingdom, the US delegation spoke out several times to emphasize the need for more progress on LGBT rights. A Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights explained that the recent LGBT expansion of the federal hate crime law was just a start, and that President Obama is committed to repealing both the Defense of Marriage Act and Dont Ask, Dont Tell, and that the Administration seeks passage of legislation to prohibit workplace discrimination and to provide workplace benefits for LGBT individuals serving in the federal workforce.

Citing the Councils report to the UN, Mark Bromley, Chair of the Council, said that his organization, together with its 19 coalition partner organizations, decided that it was important to let the world know that "LGBT Americans remain decidedly second-class citizens in the United States in 2010. Although the Obama Administration is acknowledging the need to end formal discrimination against LGBT Americans, Congress is halting progress and the Administration needs to push harder. The United States is falling increasingly behind scores of other nations with greater equality provisions in their laws for LGBT citizens" from workplace nondiscrimination policies, the right to serve in the military, programs to end violence, and equal immigration policies. We have a lot of catch up to do if we want to be a world leader in human rights."

Assistant Secretary Michael Posner closed the discussion by noting our countrys history of racial, religious and ethnic discrimination, and that the three heads of the US delegation, including himself, Assistant Secretary Brimmer and the State Departments Legal Adviser, Harold Koh, could not have represented the US government at the countrys founding, or even until very recent times. He claimed the same spirit of inclusion continues to animate US efforts to extend full rights for all, including LGBT Americans. Bromley noted that "the rhetoric, like the US civil rights story, is inspiring, but now its time to move beyond words to actions, and that is where Congress and the Administration have fallen short."

By: Henry Pacheco
Council for Global Equality
www.globalequality.org