THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

"Discrimination against LGBT people is based on prejudice, and to change that requires commitment and dialogue," said Jessica Stern, Executive Director of IGLHRC. "The International Human Rights Defense Act would create the infrastructure to make it happen."

Apart from establishing a high-level office at the Department of State on LGBT issues, the International Human Rights Defense Act also institutionalizes planning and reporting on U.S. foreign policy as it relates to discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

President Barack Obama and senior administration members have repeatedly expressed commitment to advancing equality for LGBT persons through U.S. foreign policy. At the same time, the administration has been criticized for not addressing LGBT discrimination uniformly everywhere. Most recently, several U.S. based human rights organizations, including IGLHRC, separately urged the White House to finalize its review of financial assistance to Uganda, in the wake of that country's passage of a bill to criminalize freedom of speech and assembly related to same-sex relations.

"We have been very clear with the White House: the Uganda review is important in and of itself, but it is also important because of the message it sends to other would-be discriminators" said Stern. "We are hopeful that the International Human Rights Defense Act could institutionalize some of the hard conversations we know need to happen elsewhere too."