Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, throughout my career, I have been proud to
stand up for equality for all Americans regardless of their sexual
orientation or gender identity. While I have seen much progress with
respect for the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender,
LGBT, community within the United States, the struggle for equality and
justice abroad remains significant. Many countries have laws that
criminalize homosexuality, prohibit public support of the LGBT
community and persecute those who identify as LGBT. To adequately
address the challenges posed by these discriminatory laws, the United
States must make LGBT rights a priority in all of our foreign policy
and there needs to be dedicated position responsible for coordinating
that effort. That is why, today, I am introducing the International
Human Rights Defense Act of 2015, which directs the Department of State
to make international LGBT human rights a foreign policy priority and
would establish a Special Envoy position in the Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor responsible for coordinating that effort.

Over the past few years, conditions have deteriorated for LGBT
individuals in many regions of the world. Russia enacted a ban on
arbitrarily-defined ``homosexual propaganda,'' endangering the position
of many LGBT individuals and their allies. Russia's law has been the
basis for similar legislation threatened or introduced in countries
across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Lithuania,
Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus. In December 2013, India's Supreme Court
reversed a lower court ruling and reinstated the criminalization of
homosexuality in the second most populous nation on earth. Nigeria,
Uganda, and Gambia have all passed laws that make homosexuality a crime
punishable with life imprisonment. While Uganda's law was overturned by
its Constitutional Court, leaders have pledged to pursue similar
legislation. Conditions for transgender individuals are particularly
troubling in Brazil, where 113 transgender individuals were murdered in
a 1-year period.

In light of these alarming developments, I am introducing the
International Human Rights Defense Act of 2015. It is critical that the
United States fight for LGBT equality both at home and abroad. The Obama Administration has taken great steps in affirming and strengthening the United States' commitment to LGBT equality as a critical component of our international human rights objectives. However, our government does not yet have a comprehensive strategy for addressing LGBT discrimination overseas and we lack a
central individual office responsible for inter-bureau and inter-agency
coordination to achieve these objectives.

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