Transcripts For CSPAN2 Officials Discuss Protecting LGBTQ Rights Around The World 20220718

Releasing the first ever passports with x jenga markers indicating transgender people. They also talked about recent efforts to recruit more lgbtq people in the peace corps. Good afternoon. Walking to the center for strategic and international studies. I am marti flacks from direct of Human Rights Initiative and principle of international i am delightedi to be cohosting todays events with the diversity leadership in International Affairs program here at csis and with the support of our Employee Resource Group on this topic. Its wonderful to see so many of you here in person in the Building Back at csis and we also welcome those who are joining us via the live stream. We host todays event on investment of the rights of lgbtqia people through u. S. Foreign policy and add an interesting moment, and a moment of great dichotomy. The efforts of advocates and the support of some governments, protection of lgbtqia right around the world is increasing in many places. Weve seen several brightt spots that stand out, a testament to efforts by those advocates and activists over the past year. In december chilis parliament only pass samesex marriage bill, the 31st country in the world to do so, and just this month that high cabinet endorsed a significant Civil Partnership bill. In argentine and colombia in the u. S. Federal government now recognize nonbinary identities in the federal and nationalge ids. Kuwait Constitutional Court struck down a law that had been used by Security Forces to enable the abuse of transgender individuals. But for every bright spot we see many continuous attacks on lgbtqia rights. We see efforts like the one in ghana to pass new repressive legislation and receive renewed attacksce on activists in places like turkey and kazakhstan, an increase in attacks on transgender people a special transgender women of color here in the united states. Weve also watch leaders around the world in places like russia, hungary and poland weaponized antilgbtqia frederick to motivate inactivate a specific set of constituents and to seat and authoritarian political agenda. And the reference by the russian patriarch in march to gay parades in ukraine as a justification for the russian invasion of ukraine was the peak of this kind of particular political strategy that we have to be aware of. We also know that progress even the democraticc environments is not a reversible and that backsliding is real and that reality was brought home to us last week with the u. S. Supreme courts decision in dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health with its immediate application for reproductive rights and his potential future implications on lgbtqia rights. And so for us the question of how we protect the fundamental rights must inevitably be focused not only on changing the behavior of the most repressive regimes by protecting a gains that have been made in well. Acies as and it is into virgo component to build more resilient sustainable democratic systems. Lgbtqia rights are in many ways ail bellwether for broader human rights and democracy issues. And so thats why i am very excited to that end that we have with us a panel of real experts to talk about how the u. S. Government and the Advocacy Community are thinking about these challenges, what role lgbtqia rights play in the Global Human Rights and democracy agenda and what the road ahead for u. S. Foreign policy shouldht look like. Here to facilitate that discussion isa, my colleague hadeil alile users as a Deputy Director at csis diversity of leadership at International Affairs program. She also chairs the consortium and its programming director for the asic across the pond initiative at women of color advancing key security and conflict confirmation were thrilled to have our panelists here today and i will turn it over to hadeil to facilitate that conversation. Hadeil. Thank you so much, marty. They did to the Human Rights Initiative for the partnership to the event and lgbtqia for the leadership in this space. I would be remiss if i did not think the staff was worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this event happen, lauren, naz and madeline. Welcome to all of you to csis joining us here in person and thanks to those of you joining us virtually. It is my honor to be a moderator for todays event on placing lgbtqia rights at the center for u. S. Foreign policy. To kickla off todays event i am delighted to introduce special envoy Jessica Stern who uses auburn and ends as u. S. Special envoy to advance the human rightsy of lgbtqia persons of the Us Department of state. Prior to joining the state Department Special envoy stern led Action International leading lgbtqia human rights organizations as executive director for ten years. Special envoy stern is been a researcher at human rights watch,n a fellow at amnesty international, program directr for Constitutional Rights and adjunct associate professor at Columbia University school of international and public affairs. She is a recipient of numerous honors including from attitude magazine, the city news and the metropolitan community church. Special envoy stern its an honor to have you. I give you the floor for your opening remarks and sharing about the First Ever Agency reports on advancing the human rights of lgbtqia persons around the world. Thank you so much, hadeil and thank you marti for the wonderful opening. Its really good to be here today on the last day of pride month. I am always inspired by people that are not done celebrating the month and will come to a intellectual panel rather than just the prideat marches and the parties. As hadeil said im the special envoy for advancement of human rights lgbtqia persons, and this is a really powerful moment if youre concerned with the safety and wellbeing of lgbtqia people around thehe world. Marti opened with some really excellent examples of progress and challenges for this community. I started my day with a call this morning with a roundtable of lgbtqi presenters in turkey. I started my day that way for a number of reasons. The offense had been planned for somemy time but we had also planned the event because we had been following the developments for the lgbtqia community in turkey with some concern. You may be aware that since 2016 all pride marches havee been banned across turkey, and this year was no exception. Somehow, with some fortitude that is almost unimaginable, lgbtqia activists found way to celebrate, to protest and to come together but this weekend istanbul, in spite of peoples very careful efforts to honor their community and their self, there were arrests of over 350 lgbtqia people and their allies as he tried to honor pride month and all that it stands for them. In the past eight years the total number of people arrested at lgbtqia prides in istanbul was around 100. So this year that seemed a fourfold increase. And to think when we are here and a space like this whether we are watching online or sitting in this comfortable room we have to ask ourselves, what would it cost to have this conversation in another place . And what can we all do to make sure that everybody, regardless of the countries that they are in, has a right to talk about human rights, the rule of law and access to healthcare, education, and wellbeing for lgbtqia people. So hadeil asked me to start off by talking about what the Biden Administration has done. Since President Biden released his president ial memorandum on lgbtqia inclusion in u. S. Foreign policy and foreign assistance which came out february 4, 2021. My Office Working with some incredible people in the audience right now partnered withth the white house to releae the one you report looking at whole of government approach, looking at the efforts that we made from usaid, from the peace corps, from the department of the treasury and the department of state and beyond to make sure were developing targeted programs to include lgbtqia people and everything that we do and mainstreaming this Vulnerable Group of people and everything from the policy level to the speeches to the behind the scenes conversations. And this is really important and this directive comes from the top. As President Bidens interim National Security strategy states, quote, when we defend the equal rights of all people, women andal girls, lgbtqia individuals, members of indigenous communities, people withem disabilities, people of every ethnic background and religion, we help ensure that those rights are protected for our own children in america. And so i bring up this to emphasize domestic and Foreign Policy are two sides of the same coin, okay . Weto have to fight for human rights in all contexts. Th the report that a dreidel here has read, come all 126 pages of it, is really, really important. To the best of my own knowledge it is the first time any government has ever released a report documenting its efforts to include lgbtqia people in Foreign Policy and for resistance. Thats a big deal, right . You can imagine why we have done it. We have done it to be transparent about our efforts, and also to lay a marker down for ourselves, in essence to take inventory of the work done in just one year, but also to take stock so that we know the work that still needs to be done. I will just may be say one more thing maybe one example from the report. There are lots of examples of progress. There are some examples that i think of as relatively modest, but if we want to change Foreign Policy, the way we do it is through lots of small and issues come together. Ill give you an example to show you how important it is to do this work. The peace corps thought if you want to have a more diverse set of people in the peace corps we need to ensure our Recruitment Practices are diverse. So the peace corps convened a special transgender recruitment day to ensure transgender people know they are welcome in the peace corps, they are wanted in the peace corps and if theres a transgender person serving in the peace corps theyre not alone. Theres a cohort of people. Thats an example of one tangible thing that makes inclusion happen. Ill give you an example of something at a policy level that im in normalcy proud of. At the department of state we released the first ever u. S. Passport which has the exgender marker. We did so on april 11 of this year. Had you heard about this . Okay, some people, some people shaking their heads. Now you know and i you can tell your friends, butut this really matters because the x gender marker means that we recognize more than the binary categories of male and female. So x stands for unidentified or other and its a really concrete way of saying that everyone should have access to legal identity before the law and that our government isbe catching up with the lived realities of lgbtqia people. So there are many more examples but i believe it there because i have given you a taste. Thank you, special envoy stir. As you make in the transparency and the reporting as well, i think one of the aims of this report is hopefully to inspire other governments to promote human rights of lgbtqia persons and find ways to integrate their needs in Foreign Policy. What were your goals with the release of the support and do you think those goals have been accomplished . Well, deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman launched the report for us and she said this is not a victory lap. And i think thats really important when you ask that question, hadeil. Are the goals accomplished . You can never really finished your work for lgbtqia writes and tell homophobia, transcoder, by foti, enter phobia at all related forms of intolerance are eradicated, our work will never be done. The part of the reason why this report matter so much is because there are 70 countries around the world the still criminalize homosexual status or convict. When you hear the number and it almost becomes background is because for those of us to follow this work we have heard it soll many times, but when i started doing this work 20 years ago that number was around 90. In the last six years alone, Nine Countries that decriminalize homosexual status or conduct, which means that the global trend is towards decriminalization. And it is not limited to one kind of country or one region of the world. The trend is towards the recognition of the fundamental dignity of lgbtqia people. At that want to say that and i save it to ant to audience of americans because i think we are very concerned with the backlash in the rollback on our rights, and particular parts of the lgbtqia community are targeted. But i want to say that once you have begun the process of recognizing lgbtqia people are entitled to equal rights, you just cant go back. So the trajectory of progress is on our side. Thank you so much. This is Perfect Timing to bring into the conversation senior coordinator jay gilliam, welcome to csis. She serves as agencies lead to elevate issues concerning lgbt plus and other people of diverse genders and sexuality. In his role he works to integrate lgbtq people into u. S. Aid inclusive developing programs, policies and research and training. And most recently he was engagement and Communications Adviser at the center for education at usa. Welcome and i will give you the floor to share your opening remarks for great, thank you but really great introduction. Good afternoon, everyone and for those doing online hello. My name isod jay gilliam. I use pronouns key, his. I am the coordinator. First i want to say thank you to csis for hosting this event, for putting a spotlight on lgbtqia issues, and turned the to human rights and the development, Inclusive Developmentnt of lgbtqia persons run will. I want to go back to remarks at the opening and just say that we are also following the recent events that a been very troubling for everyone. At they outset i want to make clear that with u. S. Aid we will continue to prioritize parking with governments, private sector, international and nongovernmental organizations to really work to improve the Health Outcomes including advancing sexual and Reproductive Health and rights. So this means our programs and our policies are not going to be changing, despite the Dobbs Decision that is been made here. I also want to acknowledge as we all know this decision not only impacts women rights. It impacts all who can be pregnant including transmission, nonbinary people and and other gender diverse individuals. We have to keep in mind those rights that are being taken away here, we have to be mindful they have reverberations for all of us around the world. But thankfully we are part of an administration jessica and i were lgbtqia writes our human rights, full stop. And administrator power who leads usaid also is committed to advancing lgbtqia Inclusive Development but for some of you might be saying what does that mean exactly . Inclusive development is an Equitable Development approach. Itse build an understanding tht every individual and community, those come from diverse identities and experiences, everyonene is instrumental in te transformation of their ownan society. Their engagement for thehe developing process leads to Better Development i outcomes. As chordate im working with my colleagues around the world who are implement and partners and hopefully with all of you to be really advancing this ambitious vision. Inclusive Development Means integrating lgbtqia equities and all his work were doing at usaid. It means making usaid more accessible to lgbtqia persons and countries, both leaders, advocates, organizations and those in the community. It means making sure that research we arere supporting is getting to actionable outcome. And it also ensures that we as a usaid continue to be a leader in the space, and todays conversation we hope to be able to share some of the ways we been advancing lgbtqia inclusive developing. I want to say thank you to jessica and our colleagues for the herculean effort and giving the h inner agencies report out. We were really proud to be able to profile a number of examples of what lgbtqia Inclusive Development looks like. One example of that is from the Dominican Republic where we have a partnership with the u. N. Developmentme program called beg lgbtqi in the craving. Through the program theres been a number of highlights and successes but two we highlighted in the report were one, the launch of a national lgbtqia survey in the Dominican Republic which helps us understand what the Community Looks like, what their needs and challenges are. At another from that program intersects report that really document the lived realities of people in the region of the caribbean and latin america. Those are examples of the ways we are really trying to advance lgbtqia Inclusive Development. I also want to mention a a coe component of this work includes working with local partners, local lgbtqia communities and administrator power has made advancing localization efforts of priority the way that she wants to advance developments. I see these things happen working handinhand with each other and that the best way we can be advancing lgbtqia lives, livelihoods is by working closely on the ground with partners in those places. Im going to quote administrator power who says, if we truly want to make inclusive, local voices need to be the center of everything we do. Weve got to tap into the knowledge of local communities and their lived experiences, otherwise we risk reinforcing the systemic inequities that are already ing place. And so were working with our colleagues in the agency who are advancing efforts and the localization front to help understand the ways that those efforts can positively impact the work were doing to advance lgbtqia Inclusive Development. In fact, just today i published a blog on her work review worksite that really talks about the importance of working with local partners and advancing lgbtqia Inclusive Development. So im going to stop there, and i know were going to be continuing our conversation more but thats just a couple of the highlights. Thank you. And let me ask you a followup question based on the remarks that you made and the report. U. S. Aid clearly articulate its efforts in ensuring the transit people ablee to both access and benefit from usaids program picky mentioned administrator power statement after this report highlighting important progress that usaid has made written inclusive deal of policies and alsos highlighted the power of partnerships which is at the core of what usaid does. Can you tell us more about how you arrived at this point, what is contributing to this increase prioritization that you are seeing . One thing is the incredible staff that we have at usaid. We have a network, focal point across h d. C. And our bureaus he at usaid as well as in missions around the world, and those lgbtqia focal points are really the heart and soul of how we get this done. At usaid a lot of our work happens in country and so we are really dependent on those local points to do that. Its in my priority to up reengage with those focal points. In thehe last administration it was very difficult to be working on these issues if youre committed to them didnt really have Political Leadership to do that. So ive been working to reengage with those local staffer for their, Foreign Service officer or Foreign Service nationals and giving them a place to come together to talke about the wok that were doing to advance this come to share Lessons Learned come to share successes and challenges. So thats been one way that wewe been able to do this. Another way is in terms of focusing not only in certain places are regions around the world but focusing around sectors and taking a sectoral approach to have were working on lgbtqia Inclusive Development. Idances for our staff as well as our partners in the education space as well as the resilience and Food Security places. Those guidances provided a claps and how do you take into account the challenges of administrators, of teachers who are and ensure that they are in an environment that is inclusive of their needs and advance their work . Were really excited that we are continuing to itbuild on those and my discussions with other owners of from the private sector. There excited to see that were bringing in a Development Lens into this space so its not only talking about the human rights peace but talking about the development angle of advancing livelihoods and this year were going to be working to create new sectorial guidances and the military and assistance and Economic Empowerment and we know in both of those areas that with advocates from around the world and as all of us know from the crises that are happening from afghanistan to ukraine to many other places that humanitarian assistance crises are often the places where lgtbq people are getting left out so we need to find ways to ensure that protections in short their needs are being met and affiliated with Economic Empowerment and livelihood we know for a number of reasons lgtbq people do not have the same process opportunities to access credit, to be part of formal job sectors so thats another focus would like to lean on thank you to special envoy stern for bringing the perspective of the administration and setting the stage for this conversation. Part of the goal of this discussion is to bring the b perspective of leading practitioners and activists. So im honored to welcome doctor frankie to the conversation here today. She uses she her pronoun and is founder of the center for International Development. Her career has focused on applied ethics, Inclusive Development, gender equality governance and human rights. Her career has covered project experience over 40 countries and 15 years of residence in africa, the middle east and asia. Under the Obama Administration she served as first and today only openly transgender appointee at usaid as a Senior Advisor on democracy, human rights and governance in Subsaharan Africa and on issues globally. Welcome. Joining us as well is Mister Stephen schumacher was a policy advocate and dissent uses her pronouns with the council of quality. An organizationdedicated to advancing an american foreignpolicy that is inclusive , and a nigerian board advocate and strategist stephen has spent an extensive time and experience and expertise in billing policies and fundraising. He has worked as a youth advisor to the Un Population front and founded the first human Led Organization in eastern nigeria to address discrimination and abuse and other Health Issues including hiv. Its an honor to have both of you here and let me start with you stephen. As a leading practitioner and policy advocate what were your reactions to the report and the statements made by special envoy stern. Thank you for having me this opportunity. I think just before the conversation started i want to talk about the progress of the ngissues but also as we pointed out the challenges that have some examples allike a special envoy talking about turkey but also when were seeing that issues that face these people, its some of the discussions including humanitarian assistance, things like also providing support for lgtbq people around livelihoods and economic participation so i think something thats interesting to me as a special envoy was lgtbq people have freedom where we can go and it is through but i think beyond that what were seeing is its important for people to also be a part of a society looking for ways to address their wellbeing moving from just making laws that are welcoming but also ensuring they have the capability to participate in the economy and this is important because if you think about n Global Experience during the pandemic u its a huge exclusion of lgtbq people and some of the commissions that government would provide. In many countries where governments were able to provide Financial Assistance or older forms of assistance, lgtbq people were usually excluded so this seems an important issue that i think while were talking about opportunity thinking about we need to be beyond just words actions and i think jay also speaks about globalization that ultimately whatever were doing what matters is that people all over the world are able to experience moving from just the will to do something in research but to actually encompass what ive for more legislation. And doctor, you are International Development practitioner and human rights advocates and activists. What were your reactions. Is wonderful to be here with this particular crowd. Particularly with special envoy my good friend jessica this is something that comes with real traction. She spent a voice and her voice is motivational. Shes a woman who cares. Very deeply but what a great person to have at the state department. What i would like to see us do to support her and im looking at this in the up context of the fact that she is in the world, as a representative our country at the highest level and advocate for the Human Dignity of all people in the lgtbq community and beyond. She also is aware that in this country thats not whats being done right now in many states. Enormous levels of disrespect and deeply concerning trends in this country that really challenge the notion of daytoday people like me. Thats not okay but she e carries our flag so what can we do to support her . One ofthe things we can do is stop thinking about us and them. Were all developing countries. And to that end to be able to bring the strength of Civil Society here. And organizations like us we solidly behind what she assigned to do in the world. To bring their energy, their knowledge, their experience and their care. Take the work that shes doing so really im very encouraged to have her in this position and what shes doing is so important but weve got to back her. Shes a friend of mine from years ago. Again, shes the right person because this is not just as important as it is about protecting and promoting the rights of lgtbq people. This is about their lives. This is not the quality of their lives. A truly human life but if we are going to get to a place where thats actually a truly human life for any marginalized group, no particular target. People get freaked out by people like me, so be it. They have to have a life. They have to have a job. Access to o have health care and education, you name it. The stuff they are not getting right now. We have encouraged four years lgtbq people to advocate for their rights. Necessary but not sufficient. People have to be recognized and respected as human beings. Of as the goal of universal dignity and thats what dave is talking about when hes talking about bringing out a fully realized development initiative. Education, health, jobs, housing. Things that usaid has been doing forever, lets bring them to peoplelike us all around the world. Im glad that we need to give them money. We need to give them actually not that much money. Theres not that many of us in the world. Its a low hanging fruit to get there. That would be a really big opportunity for the state department and others to say lets break free some money because we can have a phenomenal impact in transforming the lives, the quality of life, the truly human life of people who are lgtbq and their allies. You doctor thank you for highlighting the importance of wellbeing and also the importance of allies in the work that we need to be doing as well. The council for global equality put up a report card on the human rights of hpeople in 20 20 for the summit of democracy. Could you tell us more about what went into the creation of this report and what doyou want us as readers to take away from it . The report card provides a concise measurement for the whole human rights protections of lgtbq people. As i mentioned social rights and provisions on violence. We link democracy with the full citizenship of people. Although the lcitizenship framework in the world democracy is cautioning noon is very critical because it highlights the importance of ensuring the minority people would have access. It also links to the parallel conversation around Economic Empowerment and participation. I think also what the report card also highlights is marginalized people actually are rate so its important to Pay Attention to that. For instance a society where theyre not recognized will not be able to exercise the full rights to participate in the electoral system because of lack of recognition of the rights identity cards. I ththink also something very important for folks to take away from the report card is that almost all democracies have a long way to go in ensuring the full citizenship and participation of lgtbq people from the human rights perspective and from access perspective. And all of this is very important because again if you go back to what we experienced its still very much around. Lgtbq people suffered the most and we can see this from a lot of the reports that came up during the height of thecollege. I think also you see these people increasingly ofleeing undemocratic societies and countries and are confronting new challenges when they come to the border for instance. Things that the Supreme Court has actually recently removed the remaining remain in mexico policy so that speaks to the challenges even when these folks flee dangerous situations that come to a place like america and they see those kind of challenges so the General Health is impacting these conversations when it comes to democrats human rights and joining it people. And if you havent had a chance to look at the report card i highly encourage you to do so. Doctor, you recently put up an article titled pride for everyone where you mentioned Community Empowerment project as an example of a successful effort to promote the thinking around female genital cutting. You highlight in your article the idea of a shared commitment towards Mutual Respect and mutual significance as you mentioned earlier. What else in your opinion other than starting a dialogue and Civil Society leaders andInternational Development practitioners to the champion of Human Dignity for all . We need to do a lot more for sure. Theres much talk out there already. What we need to do is get under the talking tosee what are we talking about . Thats why my particular organization, it seems odd for us to say its not about human rights. We are saying that only in the sense that human rights i are an indicator of human universal dignity. So the adegree that people are experiencing duniversal Human Dignity is going to be made manifest in the way they leave their lives and the ways others around them leave their lives. Were not talking about changing the dialogue, were talking aboutchanging a discourse and utdiscourse is an exchange of ideas. Its a way of thinking and what they did took a long time. What they did in senegal and now eight other countries in west africa was open the door not just to specifically genital cutting other than where she started. She started with a conversation about dignity and people locally rose to that discourse. Claimed that leadership for themselves and by a matter of just natural progression what were some of the Biggest Challenges to the experience in senegal, female genital cutting. They got there ontheir own. Not because molly said so. We need to change the way we think and im going to do a shout out to chorus international, a faith and Front Organization right now. One of the challenges for our own International Table society thats working in Development Space that they are unbolted with diversity equity and inclusion. But mostly only for their officeshere. But we cant do that for those field offices, come on. Thats criminal there. Dont talk to me about that, we dont have themoney for that. Its not in the budget. For that way too many times. Chorus international a faith informed group really is saying number we have to have consistency. We cant have two standards here and there. We cant have it instantly, youve got to be pragmatic about this. But were going to move in that direction. Thats leadership. Thats strong leadership iso im looking for that leadership in Civil Society here to support leadership in Civil Society around the world. I think its absolutely possible. Im looking at this as i said for more money today. Im looking for the gift behind this in a serious way. To have a discourse with changes of thinking and i absolutely a place for human rights for sure. But lets focus deeper. Lets focus on what drives change. Does what does drives change is the space where we can talk about things like human rights things like wanted authenticity , like love. What a remarkable example of lesbian gay and bisexual people to the notion of love. There are how much can you be involved in that . Human rights doesnt have that easily but more principle of Human Dignity and talk about love. Talk about authenticity, we can talk about compassion, care, empathy. All is great powerful things that drive change. Thats what im hoping to see us move towards. Thank you for highlighting that shared language of empathy, love and dignity. As we seen here and from the report administration has clearly made some significant igstrides in terms of its commitment to uplifting and protecting the lgtbq divinity, as you mentioned weve done a lot but we still have a lot more to go. What steps do you think should be taken to ensure that this commitment is turned into concrete and sustainable action . I can listen to smart Civil Society leaders like stephen forever. I was interested in this crisis they have the answers. Theres just so much truth in what you both said so i want to thank you. I dont have enough time to quote i everything you said but the concept that chloe introduced of a truly human life is profound. Its really beautiful. And i would be remiss if i didnt say chloe, you know, the state department has a robust Grantmaking Program for lgtbq around the world. In fact chloe if you didnt know, the state department runs the Global Equality Fund, does everybody know what that is . Theres so many nerds here. Thats amazing. Though Global Equality Fund is a Publicprivate Partnership of governments including the us and private actor who supports lgtbq organizations on the front lines for justice around the world and this is their 10th anniversary year and we just crossed the 103 million mark. Its not for us, is for the movement. And what are the steps we need to translate, its many things but i will always say that one thing that lgtbq human rights defenders need is funding because it costs money to turn on the lights, to buy a computer. To pay staff salaries and ymoney is not the only answer. Its as stephen was saying you need an intersectional analysis. But money can accelerate the pace of change. Money is not evenly distributed to all human rights movements and lgtbq people are often shut out whether its from access to funding to support their human rights movements for access to funding in terms of fair and equitable livelihoods. Ill give you acouple of quick examples ofwhat steps should be taken beyond funding. One is training. One of the things that appealed to me about coming to cs i have, its the idea that this is a foreignpolicy space. I think that the respect for lgtbq people should be a nonpartisan issue. We should all be able to agree that discrimination and violence is wrong. Becauseit doesnt matter who were talking about. I think we need to do more training for public , for foreignpolicy professionals. A second recommendation is lead me we need more leadership on these issues but i never miss the opportunity to say articulate your support for countering discrimination and all other marginalized and Vulnerable Groups. Sometimes it takes just one other person to make spacefor you. To feel like youre. And we certainly need people that are in charge of budgets and hiring and have important positions in policy to demonstrate that leadership. And then last but not least my office is spearheading their rulemaking process which is the kind of you know, the government work that is incredibly important and the idea behind this rulemaking process is the demand discrimination on any grounds including on the grounds of Sexual Orientation or sex characteristics but also race, gender, religion, disability and beyond in all Us Government foreign assistance including contracts and grants. So i think there are many things we can do. We justneed more help doing it. We mentioned funding, leadership, any otherthoughts . I was going to go back to one of the things stephen said around accountability and the scorecard they have created for the center for democracy. I want all of you to hold us accountable for what we put into the report. Check back with us next year when were rolling out the new one as jessica had mentioned before it could be longer. It could have new stuff in it. It should have some checkmarks of things weve accomplished that we said we were going to do but also to utilize the scorecard that tge put together. If youre from another place are you engaging with other government, hold them accountable for itheir actions and what theyre doing. I think thats incredibly important. Everyone has mentioned we all could use more resources and we highlighted in the report that us aid our r portfolio is one of the smallest in agency so yes, were more resources are always helpful and is not only standalone for the programming were doing but one of the ways we can help resource and accelerate integration into other sectors with our colleagues that leads me to the third point. That just in terms of we are working to accelerate integration into the various parts of our development work. It reminds me we all have a place that orwe could be advocating for this issue. Similar to what jessica just mentioned wherever you are theres a way that you could be supporting lgtbq work if you are working here in the foreignpolicy space. We are doing it from the Development Side. Jessica and her state Department Colleagues are doing it in the diplomatic side. Civil Society Partners itare doing it from the outside pushing us to be doing more. I think tank colleagues are writing pieces were doing research to really help bolster the argument around engaged for support so just remember that we all can be doing something in this space to promote and advance the lives of people around the world. One last question to both of you before we turn it over to the audience for questions. Ill start with doctor schwenke. How can policy workers and Civil Society Work Together to ensure this process continues to through the current administration. Policy makers need to stop making policy until they listen. The main take away here. We have a Civil Society here in the country, they have a lot to say. They have stories to share, narratives that we need to listen to and we need to unpack all these letters cause theyre all different narratives. They have different needs and priorities and we need to take recognition of that. And people like jay and his organization on the Development Side need to respond to that level of nuance and particularity to trans women needs compared to what a game and needs. Youve got a will the way of doing that which is heartening to think to do what we so easily say lgtbq but we have to take heart. We have to listen, learn and understand from people who lgtbq . Thank you for this opportunity and just to say i think its important to see the community as a Strong Partner and an equal partner not just a partner and this is mainly important for us here. Engaging with folks in developing countries. Were all developing countries but understanding that they know what the issues are. They have to actually be given the age to talk about the issues and powers. And that the resources were talking about that those resources get to the community. When you though the resources are based on arrangements and all the things that it doesnt get to the community. I think also ensuring that we understandthat its not enough to change the laws. Like when we talk about wellbeing , atwhen we talk about what that means. That just saying thatokay, theyre no longer criminalized in their country. It doesnt mean that theyre like okay, they have other issues as well. There they basically have a different job. Or to move freely from one country to the other. To enjoy their requirements as human beings. Those would be issues that we need to Pay Attention to and not just one single divided idea of lgtbq rights. We have time for one question from the live audience. My colleagues catherine and sophia in the back will have the light share their names and a solution and a brief question. Hopefully you might be able to get a second question so my colleagues in the back. Okay. So my name is sasha. Im with the schoolof public service. And my question is the title of this talk is something along the lines of putting lgtbq rights at the center of us Foreign Policy. My question is given that as was heard in the introduction and throughout the talk about how certain countries, a lot of countries around the world things have been getting worse and two of the examples were poland and turkey and both of these countries are integral nato allies. What i was wondering is how do we balance trying to put lgtbq rights at the center of us Foreign Policy with maintaining the unity of nato which is so important right now with the russian invasion . Special envoy. [inaudible] were there other questions . We can try to take a second on rachel. No way am i getting out of here without answering the question. Good afternoon, my name is rachel thomas. I have the honor to work under special on joint envoy stern at the state department and im a needy veteran. We talked a lot about lgtbq rights and the intersection already of age, things of that nature but a lot of times then the state of the Us Government there are so many executive orders that are talking about racial justice, gender justice, under identity, lgtbq and there seems to be a lot of infighting that still happens. I dont know as much for Civil Society buttheres quite a bit within the Us Government unfortunately still. For both jessica and jay, how do you see the way forward to make sure were not just sidling these issues is for one or two executive orders above and making sure we take an intersectional approach. Sasha, that was a hard question. You know, i was with the secretary a week and a half ago and he was asked a similar question by a reporter. And the way the answer is i by saying that those rights are one central component of us Foreign Policy not the only central component. And that when he looks at the competing demands of the Us Government grapples with he takes into account National Security interests, economic interests. Access to food. And human rights. And i think we always have to think in a holistic framework if were going to be Effective Advocates for the human rights of all people because lgtbq people also need access to food. We also need access to financial sustainability. Awhere i think we sometimes get it wrong is that we think theres a hierarchy of priorities and human rights, at the bottom. Actually i think i know these people so well in respect them so much i would say theyre actually all intersectional h. I dont think you can have National Security withoutalso having human rights. And i think k we sort of have to flip the narrative of thinking that human rights component is a disposable component and porather move it as i think everyone was saying on the margins to the center and say actually, a betterway to have stronger economies , stronger nations is by recognizing and respecting human rights thats the way forward and thats the world we should be fighting for. Onrachels question. Rachel thomas, formidable if you dont know her. Rachel said sometimes theres Competition Among executive orders. Theres even infighting meaning the petting of marginalized groups against one another. And really im happy to be in a very special cohort at the state department. We call ourselves the quality ventures. And im hoping that we dont get into copyright trouble with marble. But i work in lockstep with the special representative on thracial discrimination. I work in lockstep with those working on global womens issues. On disability rights. And other marginalized groups including those targeted on the basis of religion or faith and i think that flips in the scripts instead of paying us against each other as though you can only work on disability or you can work on racism, actually it makes a stronger more for humans argument. I think thats the only way forward. I have much more to say about that but you know what i said. Would any of the other panelists like to try . One to sasha, part of the reason behind this summit for democracy is to bring together democracies to say that yes, this is the good form of government which we are supporting each other and also that its important that we have strong democracy and the president has said strong democracies are inclusive democracies so all of us have work to do in a space whether where democratic governance, authoritarian governments. And so we can have disagreements with friends. We can get our friends to do ri better. We can get our friends to make us be better. We have a lot of work to be doing here. I had a conversation with other governments to say how can we be telling us we need to be doing stronger when what we see happening here in the us is embarrassing frankly. And so we also can go into those conversations which really are saying yes, we know theres a lot of work that we need to be doing at home but also that we have the privilege on resources to be sharing to be supporting local advocates in the work that they want to be doing to bring about lgtbq the quality. So i just at that part to rachels question i think similarly with the quality of the quality ventures at the state department our portfolio is actually house in what is called a development, which works with a lot of marginalized populations so that there are other teams and coordinators that are working on issues with persons of disability. With Indigenous People with children in adversity around a number of issues. And one of the things that we often are talking about is exactly what you said rachel, not necessarily working in a silent but finding finding those intersectional approaches. Finding ways of speaking to all of our colleagues so that they understand when were going to these events to talk about global lgtbq crisis issues we might be focusing on that but we want them to understand the broad brush of Inclusive Development and issues thinking about and as were talking about those issues they should be thinking around what does this mean for persons with disabilities and Program Activities were supporting. What does this mean for Indigenous People . That is something we are working on as well. And unfortunately we are almost out of time and i wish we could continue the conversation longer on behalf of csrs, Human Rights Initiative and diversity and leadership , id like to thank each one of you for joining us here today for contributing to this work and to all of you who have joined us here in person, special thanks also to those tuning in online. I hope you all find ways to continue to engage with our work at the center. The special envoy mentioned at the beginning today its the last day of prima you all find ways to continue elevating this work all year round. It is a priority for us at csi asked so thank you for joining us. For those of you here in person we will now transition ito the second part of this event and you can join us right outside the resort. This week on the cspan Network Thursday night january 6 committee folded it hearing investigating the attack on the capital. Also on capitol hill this week this morning transportation secretary pete nugent testifies before the House Transportation Committee on the implantation of a 1. 9 trillion infrastructure build out last year. On wednesday to hearings on guns and gun violence. The Senate Judiciary Committee Examines the Highland Park attack and civilian access to military style assault weapons and ceos from gun manufacturers have been invited to testify before the House Oversight committee on the practices and profits of the makers. 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