Legislation that would direct the State Department to make international LGBT rights a priority of American foreign policy was reintroduced in both houses of Congress last week.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) reintroduced the International Human Rights Defense Act on Jan. 29. If signed into the law, the legislation would instruct the State Department to devise a global strategy for preventing and responding to discrimination and violence against LGBT people. In order to coordinate such efforts, a special envoy for LGBT human rights would be established within the State Department. Such an envoy would serve as the principal advisor on LGBT issues to the secretary of State and help coordinate efforts to promote international LGBT rights with local advocacy groups, governments, multilateral organizations and the private sector.
“When President Obama addressed the nation and committed to defending the human rights of the LGBT community, we made that commitment to the world,” said Markey, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement. “With the rights of the LGBT community under attack around the globe, we must stand hand-in-hand with them in the struggle for recognition and equality everywhere. It is vital to have a dedicated position at the State Department spearheading that effort.”
Last month, Obama made history as the first president to spell out bisexual and transgender in LGBT during a State of the Union address. “As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened,” Obama said. “That’s why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. We do these things not only because they’re right, but because they make us safer.”
The bill was introduced with 26 cosponsors in the Senate and 45 in the House. So far, Reps. Chris Gibson (N.Y.) and Richard Hanna (N.Y.) are the bill’s only Republican cosponsors in the House while no Senate Republicans have yet signed on as cosponsors.
With Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, the bill’s future seems bleak. Days before the bill’s reintroduction, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations said that he does not believe LGBT rights are human rights.
“I am a strong believer in traditional marriage and do not construe homosexual rights as human rights,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said during a Jan. 27 hearing on Nigeria. Smith went on to question whether the Obama’s administration’s views on LGBT rights have affected or hindered in anyway U.S. support to Nigeria to combat Boko Haram.
“On a day when 12 men were reportedly arrested for simply attending an alleged LGBT wedding in Nigeria, and as reports keep emerging about the impact of Nigeria’s anti-LGBT law on the lives of Nigerians, it is unconscionable that Representative Smith would not only object to the basic human rights of LGBT people, but argue that their rights should not be part of the administration’s policy in Nigeria,” said Ty Cobb, Director of HRC Global, in a statement.
Obama has been asked to appoint a special envoy on LGBT human rights before. In a letter sent to Obama in October, 25 senators urged the president to make the appointment “as soon as possible to ensure that it is carried over into the next administration.”
“We must do what we can as a nation to enforce the precept that all human beings, regardless of where they live, are entitled to a basic set of human rights which include the right to love who they choose without fear of punishment or death,” Lowenthal said in a statement. “LGBT rights are human rights.”
The Virginia Department of Health has reported a recent increase in mpox infections in the state.
According to Health Department data, there have been 14 reported cases of mpox since January 1. Four of these required patients to be hospitalized.
The number of cases of mpox in 2024 has already surpassed the total number of cases reported last year. Of the 2024 cases, six occurred in individuals co-infected with HIV, and all cases occurred among individuals that were not vaccinated against mpox.
The cases are spread over four separate health regions: the Northern region, which includes the D.C. suburbs; the Northwest region, including the far-out exurbs of D.C. and the Northern Shenandoah Valley; the Central region, including Greater Richmond and Southside Virginia; and Eastern Virginia, including the Northern Neck, Hampton Roads, and the Eastern Shore regions.
A Pennsylvania school board canceled an appearance by Maulik Pancholy at a local middle school's anti-bullying assembly due to concerns over his "lifestyle."
The Cumberland Valley School District school board voted unanimously to cancel the gay actor's scheduled May 22 appearance at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, a town of 9,000 people in the state's center, just 10 miles outside Harrisburg.
Pancholy, who played Jonathan on the hit TV show 30 Rock, Sanjay in Weeds, and voiced the character of Baljeet for Disney's Phineas & Ferb, is also an author of novels for young adults, including The Best at It, the story of a gay Indian-American boy and his experience dealing with bullying in a small Midwestern town, and Nikhil Out Loud, about a group of eighth-grade theater kids rising up against homophobia in their community.
"I love that you think I have more than one home," laughs Wilson Cruz, settling in at his New York apartment for what will ultimately become a wide-ranging, two-hour Zoom interview. "I am a journeyman actor who has been cobbling together a career for 30 years. That's what I am."
Truth is, Wilson Cruz is much more than that. This is the third time Cruz has been featured on a Metro Weekly cover, and he ensures that a conversation with him feels familiar, like time spent with a best friend. Talking with him is also somewhat of a unique event -- spirited, unbridled, utterly free of artifice. He is warm. He is welcoming. He is wise.
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