Principles internationalism. Im delighted to be cohosting todays event with the diversity in leadership program. And with the support of our Employee Resource Group on the topic. It is wonderful to see so many of you here in person at csis. I we host todays event for lgbtqai plus lgbtqia people at a moment of great dichotomy. Through the support of advocates, protection of rights around the world is increasing in many places. We have seen bright spot that stand out as a testament to those activists over the year. In december, the Chilean Parliament passed a samesex bill, the 31st country in the world to do so. This month, the thai cabinet endorsed a Civil Partnership bill. Argentina, colombia and the u. S. Government now recognize nonbinary identities. The Kuwait Constitutional Court struck down a law used by Security Forces to enable abusive transgender individuals. But for every bright spot, we see many continued attacks on lgbtqia plus rights, we see what in ghana, and in places like turkey and kazakhstan, and increasing attacks on transgender people, especially transgender women of color in the u. S. We have watched leaders around the world in places like russia, hungary and poland weaponize antilgbtqia rhetoric as a wedge issue to motivate a set of constituents and to create an authoritarian political agenda. And the reference of the russian patriarch in march that gay parades in ukraine were justification for the russian invasion of ukraine was the peak of this political strategy we have to be aware of. Progress even in democratic environments is not irreversible. The black the backsliding israel. The reality of that was brought home with a Supreme Court decision last week, dobbs versus jackson health, with its future implications on lgbtqia rights. We must focus not only on changing the behavior of repressive regimes, but protecting gains made in democracies. It is a component of broader efforts to build a more sustainable, resilient, socratic democratic system. Lgbtq rights are broader barometer for human rights issues. To that end, we have a panel of real experts to talk about how the government and Advocacy Community are thinking about these challenges, what role lgbtqia rights play in the Global Human Rights and democracy agenda, and what in the u. S. It should look like. My colleague served as a Deputy Director of the diversity and International Leadership affairs program, she chairs a think tank Diversity Consortium and is at women of color advancing peace and security. I will turn it over to our panelists. Thank you. Thank you to the Human Rights Initiative for their partnership on this event and for the lgbtq plus leadership in this space. Staff is worked tirelessly, lauren, naz and madeline. Thanks to those of you joining us in person and those of you joining us virtually. It is my honor to be moderator for todays event on placing lgbtqia lgbtqia placing lgbtqia rights at the forefront. Our first speaker is a u. S. Envoy to advance rights of lgbtqia at the u. S. Department of state. Special envoy stern led pride action international, a leading global lgbtqia plus Human Rights Organization as executive director for 10 years. Special envoy stern has been a researcher at Human Rights Watch and add amnesty international, Program Director at center for International Rights and adjunct professor at Columbia University school of international and Public Affairs could stern is the recipient of numerous honors including from attitude magazine, crazy on business, gay city news and metropolitan community church. Special envoy stern, it is an honor to have you here. I will give you the floor for your opening remarks about Agency Reports on advancing the human rights of lgbtqia plus people around the world. Hi, everyone. It is 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 an international an intellectual panel. I am the u. S. Special envoy for the advancement of lgbtqia plus persons. This is a really powerful moment if you are concerned with the safety and wellbeing of lgbtqia plus people are in the world. Marty opened with excellent examples of challenges and progress in this community. I started my day with a call this morning with a roundtable of lgbtqia human rights defenders in turkey, and i started my day that way for a number of reasons but the event had been planned sometime, but we also planned the event because the pad been following developments for the lgbtqia plus community in turkey with some concerns. Since 2016, all pride marches have been and across turkey. And this year was no exception. Somehow, with some fortitude that is almost unimaginable. Unimaginable, lgbtqia plus advocates found a way to celebrate and come together. But this week in istanbul, despite of peoples efforts to honor their community and themselves, their work arrests of over 350 lgbtqia plus people and our allies as they try to honor pride month end all that it means to them. In the past eight years, the total number of people arrested at lgbtqia pride in istanbul was about 100, so this year, they have seen a fourfold increase. Whether youre watching online or 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 everybody, regardless of the country they are income has the right to talk about human rights, the rule of law, access to health care, education and wellbeing for lgbtqia plus people. I was asked to start by talking about the Biden Administration has done since President Biden released his president ial memorandum on lgbtqia plus influence on Foreign Policy and foreign assistance. My office is working with some incredible people in the audience right now, partnered with the white people to produce a oneyour approach looking at government approach, looking at efforts from usaid, peace corps, department of treasury, department of state and beyond to make sure that we are developing targeted programs to include lgbtqia plus people ate everything we do, and mainstreaming this Vulnerable Group of people in everything from the policy level to the speeches to the behindthescenes conversations. At this is really important. This directive comes from the top. As President Bidens interim National Security strategy states, when we defend the equal rights of all people, women and girls, lgbtqia plus individuals, members of indigenous communities, people with disabilities, people of every ethnic background and religion, we help ensure those rights are protected for our own children in america. In america. I say this to make the point that domestic and human policy are two sides of the same going. We have to fight for human rights in all contexts. The report, which i am sure you have already 126 all 126 pages of it, is really important. It is the first time any government has ever released any report documenting its efforts to include lgbtqia people in policy and foreign assistance. And we have done it to be transparent in our efforts and also, do 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 give maybe one example from the report. There are lots of examples of progress, there are some examples i think our relatively modest, but if we want to change Foreign Policy, the way we do it is through lots of small initiatives coming together. I will give you one example to show you how important it is to do this work. The peace corps thought, if we want a more diverse set of people in the peace corps, we have to make sure our Recruitment Practices are diverse. So the peace corps had a transgender recruitment date to make sure transgender people are wanted in the peace corps and that if there is a transgender person serving in the peace corps, they are not alone, there is a cohort of people. That is an example of one tangible thing that makes inclusion happen. I will give you an example of something at a policy level that i am proud of. At the park of state, we released the first ever u. S. Passport which has the x gender marker, on april 11 of this year. Have you heard about this . Some are shaking their heads. Now you know and you can tell your friends, but this really matters because the x gender marker means that we recognize more than the binary categories of male and female. X stands for an identified or other and it is a concrete way saying everyone should have access to legal identity before the line that our government is catching up with the lived realities of lgbtqia plus people. There are many more examples, but i will leave it there. Thank you, special envoy started. Special envoy stern. One of the aims of the report is to inspire other governments to support human rights of lgbtqia plus and integrate their needs into policy. What were the goals of this report, and which of those goals do you think of been accomplished . Deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman launched the report and she said this is not a victory lap. This is really important. You can never really finish your work for lgbtqia rights until all related forms of intolerance are eradicated. Our work will never be done. But part of the reason why this report matters so much is because there are seven to countries around the world that still criminalize homosexual status or conduct. It almost becomes background noise, because those of us who follow this work have heard it so many times. When i started doing this work 20 years ago, that number was around 90. In the last six years, Nine Countries have decriminalized, sexual status or conduct, which means the global trend is toward decriminalization. And it is not limited to one kind of country or region. The trend is toward recognition of the fundamental dignity of lgbtqia plus people. And i especially want to say that to an audience of americans because i think we are also very concerned with the backlash and the rollback of our rights, and that a particular clark particular part of the lgbtqia plus community are targeted. But once you have begun the process of recognizing lgbtqia plus are entitled to human rights can be just cant go back. The trajectory of progress is on our side. Thank you. This is a perfect time to welcome jay. The senior lgbtqia plus coordinator at usaid. In his role, he integrates lgbtqia plus people into usaid Inclusive Developments, policies and training and recently, he was engagement and medications advisor at the center for education at usaid. Welcome. I will give you the floor to share opening remarks. Thank you for that introduction. My pronouns already, him, his and i am the usaid lgbtqia plus coordinator. Thank, cis, for hosting this event and putting a spotlight on lgbtqia plus issues in terms of talking about human rights and Inclusive Development of lgbtqia plus persons around the world. I want to go back to martys remarks at the opening and say that we are following recent events that have been very troubling for everyone. I want to make clear, usaid will continue to prioritize partnering with governments, private sector, international and nongovernmental organizations to work to improve health outcomes, including advancing sexual and Reproductive Health and rights. This means our programs and policies are not going to be changing, despite the dobbs decision. We all know this decision not only impacts human rights, womens rights, it includes all who can be pregnant including trans men, nonbinary individuals and other diverse individuals. We have to keep in mind that those rights are being taken away and to be mindful that there are repercussions for all of us around the world. Thankfully, we are part of a communication where lgbtqia plus rights are human rights,. And administrator power, who leads usaid, is committed to advancing lgbtqia plus Inclusive Development. You might be saying, what does that mean . Inclusive development is an Equitable Development approach built on understanding that every individual and community, those from diverse identities and experiences, everyone is instrumental in the trance or make an of their own societies instrumental in the transformation of their own societies. It leads to better outcomes. I am working with my colleagues around the world that are implementing partnerships and hopefully with all of you to be advancing this ambitious vision. Inclusive Development Means integrating lgbtqia plus equities and all the work we are doing at usaid, making usaid more acceptable to lgbtqia plus persons in countries. It means making sure research we are coordinating we are supporting is getting actionable outcomes and also ensures that we as usaid continue to be a leader in this space. In this conversation, we hope to share ways we have been advancing lgbtqia plus development. Thank, jessica and her colleagues at the state department for their herculean effort of getting the interagency report out. We were really proud to be able to profile examples of what lgbtqia plus Inclusive Development looks like. One example is from the Dominican Republic. We have a partnership with the u. N. Development program called lgbtqia in the caribbean. There have been a number of successes, but two of them were highlighted in the report, including an lgbtqia plus survey launched in the Dominican Republic that helps us understand what the Community Looks like, what their needs and challenges are. Another feature is and intersect report that documents the lived realities of people in the caribbean and latin america. Those are examples of the ways we are trying to advance lgbtqia plus Inclusive Development. A core component of this work includes local partners in lgbtqia plus communities. The administration has made advancing localization efforts a priority to advance development. I see these things working handinhand with each other, and that is the best way we can be advancing lgbtqia plus livelihoods, by working closely on the ground with partners in those places. Administrative administrator power says, local voices need to be the center of everything we do. We have to tap into the knowledge of local communities and their lived experiences, otherwise we risk reinforcing systemic equities that are already in place in place. We are advancing efforts on the localization front to understand ways those efforts can positively impact work we are doing to advance lgbtqia plus Inclusive Development. Today, i published a blog on our site that talks about the importance of working with local partners in advancing lgbtqia plus Inclusive Development. That is a couple of highlights. Let me ask a followup question based on the remarks you made and the report. Usaid clearly articulated its efforts to make sure lgbtqia plus people are able to access and benefit from the usaid program. You mentioned administrator power had a statement highlighting important progress usaid has made to Inclusive Development policies and also the power of partnerships, which is at the core of what usaid dies. Can you tell us more about how you arrived to this point, what is contributing to the increased buyer rotation we are seeing. We are seeing . One thing is the incredible staff we have at usaid, in our bureaus here as well as missions around the world. Those lgbtqia plus focal points are at the heart of what we get done. Our work is centered in countries, so we are dependent on local focal points to do that. It is my priority to reengage with those local focal points. In the last administration, it was very difficult to be working on these issues if you were committed to them, but did not have Political Leadership to do that. I happen working to reengage with local staff, Foreign Service officers, giving them a place to come together to talk about the work we are doing, to share lessons learned, to show successes and challenges. That has been one way we have been able to do this. Another way, in terms of focusing not only in certain regions around the world, but focusing around sectors and taking a sector approach to how we are working on lgbtqia plus Inclusive Development. Last year, we put out to guidances 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 spotlight on how you integrate lgbtqia plus persons into those spaces. In the education space, how you take into account the needs of learners, of administrators and teachers who are lgbtqia plus and ensure that they are seeing that they are in an environment that is inclusive of their needs , to advance their work. We are excited we are continuing to build on those guidances. My discussions with donors from the private sector, they are excited to see we are bringing a Development Lens into this space. It is