Congressman Lowenthal, Senator Markey applaud appointment of Jessica Stern as State Department LGBTQI+ Special Envoy oc-breeze.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oc-breeze.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
President Joe Biden has put his campaign words into action, sending a signal to the world that America is picking up the torch again as a global champion for LGBTQ rights.
On February 4, Biden empowered staffers of the departments of state, justice and homeland security, both domestically and abroad, to take meaningful action on behalf of LGBTQ rights.
His revised Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World strengthens the historic memorandum signed by former President Barack Obama in 2011.
At the time, Obama s memorandum placed LGBTQ rights at the forefront of U.S. foreign policy. Biden s memorandum goes beyond, by reinstating U.S. foreign and immigration policy on LGBTQ rights, with clear directives to agency staffers to protect LGBTQ rights by any means necessary.
Markey, Lowenthal to re-introduce International Human Rights Defense Act
Feb 3, 2021 |
Sen. Edward Markey, left and Congressman Alan Lowenthal
Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Congressman Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., announced Wednesday Feb. 3, that they will re-introduce the International Human Rights Defense Act, a “bicameral effort to reaffirm the United States’ role as a world leader in the promotion of LGBTQI equality.”
In a press release announcing their effort, the two lawmakers noted that nearly 70 nations around the world have enacted laws that criminalize homosexuality, adding that “abuses in Russia, Tanzania, Uganda, Indonesia, Central America and elsewhere demonstrate a continued threat to the fundamental rights of LGBTQI communities in every region of the world.”
February 3, 2021 at 7:31 pm EST | by Michael K. Lavers
Markey, Lowenthal to reintroduce bill requiring US to promote LGBTQ rights abroad
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Two lawmakers on Wednesday announced they will reintroduce a bill that would require U.S. to promote LGBTQ rights abroad through its foreign policy.
California
Congressman Alan Lowenthal and U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) made the
announcement about the International Human Rights Defense Act eight days after
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was sworn in at the State Department.
The bill,
among other things, would make the position of special U.S. envoy for the
promotion of LGBTQ rights abroad in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy,