November 2025
The U.S. State Department has issued new instructions to all U.S. embassies to guide in the
preparation of the State Department’s 2025 Human Rights Reports. (See our LinkedIn post
on this here.) As expected, they are removing the section of the annual report that covers
abuses against LGBTQI+ persons. But even more alarming, they are now requiring reporting
on transgender medical care as a human rights abuse involving the “chemical or surgical
mutilation of children.” In short, the reports are no longer even vaguely credible on LGBTQI+
issues and are now creating an anti-rights framework to legitimize attacks against our
communities.
The Council for Global Equality (CGE) has long encouraged human rights groups to report
abuses to U.S. embassies for inclusion in the annual human rights reports. Over the past
few years, based on those local partnerships and the work of a dedicated LGBTQI+ policy
team at the State Department in Washington, the U.S. human rights reports became
increasingly comprehensive and were used by the United States and many other
governments to formulate policy and adjudicate refugee claims. Unfortunately, based on
recent instructions and the last 2024 reports, we now know the next reports will no longer
be credible on LGBTQI+ and related issues, and CGE fears that the continued submission
of information to U.S. embassies could create risks for the community itself.
Given this new policy directive, we encourage groups to maintain cautious contact with
trusted U.S. embassy staff, but we also urge groups to exercise extreme caution if you plan
to submit information to U.S. embassies or the State Department, as we fear the
information could be twisted or used against community interests. For refugee and asylum
adjudication purposes only, there may be ways to submit relevant information on
extrajudicial executions, torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of LGBTQI+
persons, but please reach out to us (info@globalequality.org) or refugee groups directly to
discuss how best to present and submit that information so that it is not cited
inappropriately.
At the same time, we want to encourage all human rights groups to continue to document
and share information widely on abuses targeting LGBTQI+ persons — that information is
more important than ever given the current backlash. Many of you already have robust
dissemination networks for your data, including other embassies and the European Union,
but please feel free to reach out to discuss how to ensure your documentation reaches the
broadest possible audience. And please note that the following CGE member organizations
and allied human rights groups regularly compile human rights reports that document
violations against LGBTQI+ people globally, which are often useful for policymakers in
Washington and beyond: Amnesty International USA, Global Justice Institute, Human
Rights First, Human Rights Watch, ILGA, Outright International, Synergía – Initiatives for
Human Rights, and The Williams Institute. Please reach out to those groups directly or
reach out to us to help make connections to share your documentation.
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