SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS ON TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
November 20, 2013

The State Department joins people around the world in marking Transgender Day of Remembrance, honoring the memory of lives lost to violence provoked by fear and hatred of transgender and gender non-conforming people.

We have made tremendous progress in advancing the rights of LGBT persons. But when people continue to be harassed, arrested and even killed simply because of who they are and who they love, we know that we still have hard work before us.

The sad truth is that in too many places, including the United States, transgender persons continue to face violence and discrimination on a daily basis.

In too many cases, crimes against LGBT persons, including murder, are not thoroughly investigated or prosecuted. Transgender persons are frequently denied medical care and public services. They still suffer discrimination in employment, education, and housing.

Each of these episodes threatens our common humanity. Together, we pay a price when rights are trampled. And, together, we win when rights are protected.

That is why we are engaging diplomatically to address the specific challenges faced by transgender persons. And that’s why we will continue to urge other governments to protect all of their citizens regardless of their gender identity. Through the Global Equality Fund, we are increasing support to civil society organizations to combat bias-motivated violence targeting transgender persons.

The rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons are not special or separate or different. They are basic human rights. And human rights are universal, not negotiable.

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we renew our commitment to ensuring that all persons are able to live safely, freely and with dignity, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

STATE DEPARTMENT DEPLORES MURDER OF LGBT ACTIVIST OHENA LEMBEMBE IN CAMEROON

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 
Murder of Cameroonian LGBT and AIDS Activist Eric Ohena Lembembe
Press Statement
Marie Harf
Deputy Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
July 16, 2013

We deplore the brutal murder of Eric Ohena Lembembe, who was found tortured to death in his home in Yaoundé yesterday. We condemn this terrible act in the strongest terms and urge the Cameroonian authorities to thoroughly and promptly investigate and prosecute those responsible for his death.

Eric Ohena Lembembe was the Executive Director of Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), an organization dedicated to the fight against AIDS and for the human rights of LGBT people in Cameroon. Just two weeks ago, Mr. Lembembe spoke out against the recent break-ins at the offices of groups advocating for gay rights. The local office of one organization, Alternatives-Cameroun, was set on fire on June 26th.

The United States actively promotes respect for the human rights of all people, including LGBT individuals, in Cameroon and around the world. We will continue to support activists, like Mr. Lembembe, who stand up for the human rights of all people, regardless of who they are or who they love.

U.S. ACTING AIR FORCE SECRETARY RECOUNTS EXPERIENCE AS GAY MEMBER OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Acting Air Force Secretary Recounts Journey to Equality

By Amaani Lyle
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2013 - During a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month event at the Pentagon today, the highest-ranking openly gay member of the Defense Department described his experiences witnessing the evolution of the law that banned openly gay service members, from its implementation to its eventual repeal.


Acting Air Force Secretary Eric Fanning noted the significance of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel kicking off the DOD's pride celebration, as just two years ago, gay and lesbian service members could not openly serve in the military.

Absent an association like DOD Pride to lend support, Fanning described the difficulties and sense of isolation that he and others at the Pentagon endured as the repeal process ran its course. "There were no other open LGBT appointees, and anyone serving openly in uniform was surely in the process of being discharged," he said.

Fanning began working in the Pentagon 20 years ago, a time he described as a personally painful experience as DOD began to implement the law that came to be known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"It was a deeply conflicting time for me," the Air Force's top civilian official said. "I was launching a career with strong support from amazing bosses who knew about my personal life. ... I was being given opportunities that were being denied to people just like me. I was working for an institution that discriminated -- against people just like me."

He also recalled how during that time, people spoke about gays and lesbians in "blistering and emotional ways," denigrating them for simply wanting the right to serve their country while being honest about who they were.

Still, Fanning said, the military underwent the difficult process of opening doors to those it previously denied or constrained: women, immigrants looking to prove their patriotism and earn their citizenship, and to gays and lesbians.

"At times, it seemed agonizingly slow, or even that we were losing ground," Fanning said. "But never once did we doubt we were on the right path."

Relying on the diverse talents of a broader pool of people who are willing and able to serve has fortified the military, Fanning explained. "We are stronger for looking more like the society we are charged with protecting, and we are today ... the finest military the world has ever known," he said.

In the two years leading up to the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell," the debate had a remarkably different tone, due in great part to the support of the president and the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen.

"I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," the admiral testified before Congress. "It comes down to integrity -- theirs as individuals and ours as an institution."

Looking back to almost two decades earlier as a junior aide, Fanning said, he could never imagine having a chairman say things like Mullen did.

Fanning said most people had begun to accept the possibility of repeal long before it occurred, though he was fortunate enough to be present when the president signed the historic document.

Among the celebrations and congratulations, he said, many supporters asked what it was like to be in the Pentagon after the repeal.

"I answered honestly, and I think disappointingly, that ... we went back to the building, and in my view, the building had already moved on past the decision and we talked about what we talk about every single day: the budget," he said in a deadpan tone.

Fanning also said he's received a bit of attention since he was nominated to be undersecretary of the Air Force -- not all of it welcome, some quite negative, and some that he described as "rather imaginative."

"Many have speculated as to my agenda, what color I'll paint the planes, what designs I have on the uniforms," he said. But like almost everyone else, he added, he remains focused on simply doing his job, and chiding comments are dwarfed by the outpouring of support he's received in and out of the Pentagon.

"It reminds me that, as important as events like this are for our community, they're also important opportunities for our allies to identify themselves and to let us know they're right alongside us," Fanning said. "Events like this give voice not just to us, but to those who support us."

REMARKS OF ANNE C. RICHARD AT HEBREW IMMIGRANT AID SOCIETY

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
"Invisible in the City": Hebrew Immigrant Aid Services Research

Remarks
Anne C. Richard
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Washington, DC
May 7, 2013


Thank you, Mark, and thank you to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society for bringing us together today to celebrate this important research on LGBT refugees and asylum seekers. I’d also like to recognize Yiftach Millo, lead researcher and author of the study we are all here to officially launch, "Invisible in the City: Protection Gaps Experienced by Sexual Minority Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Urban Ecuador, Ghana, Israel, and Kenya." I commend Mr. Millo and his team for their innovative work to help protect these refugees.

HIAS continues to be a leader in helping expose and address the barriers faced that confront lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex refugees. HIAS’s energy and vision is helping us all to find solutions to a real and persistent problem. Refugees and asylum seekers are already in a precarious position – they are at risk of exploitation, attack, and destitution. A refugee who is also part of a sexual minority is at even greater risk.

It has been over 20 years since Fidel Armanda Tobos Alfonso, a gay man from Cuba, was allowed to remain in the United States based on a judgement or understanding that he was at risk because of his sexual orientation. The Toboso-Alfonso decision paved the way for hundreds of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals as well as individuals with intersex conditions, to obtain refuge and asylum in the United States.

From the beginning of his Administration, President Obama has promoted the equal rights of LGBT people both at home and abroad. His Memorandum of December 2011 affirmed United States’s commitment to promoting the human rights of sexual minorities and specifically directed U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance agencies to protect vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers.

In her landmark LGBTI speech in Geneva in 2011, Secretary Clinton stated what we all know is true, that gay rights are human rights. We all acknowledge this universal truth: that everyone, regardless of race, religion, nationality, class or sexual identity is equal and is entitled to equal protection Today, the United States Government is working very hard, across agencies, to make sure that happens.

The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has an important leadership role to play in this effort. One of our fundamental goals is to ensure that the global system for refugee protection responds to the needs of all refugees - regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. We have taken steps to ensure gay and other sexual minority refugees are protected by officers of the U.S. Government and by our partners in the US refugee resettlement program. For instance:

We support training of all refugee protection staff – from the DC-based program officer to the regional Refugee Coordinator to the UNHCR case worker -- on how to actively include sexual minorities in our plans and programs. We support the USCIS mandate that all officers get training in the adjudication of LGBT refugees and asylum claimants. This training includes increased awareness about the issues sexual minorities face. These officers now get consistent legal and interview guidance regarding these issues.

We support humanitarian responses that meet the specific needs of LGBT refugees. For example, a man currently living in Baghdad, Iraq was subjected to continuous death threats, beaten and forced to take female hormones by his father who thought he should live as a woman because he was born with some of the physical features of a woman. He was forced to stay inside to avoid being persecuted by the larger Iraqi community, causing psychological damage. Since 2006, he has been separated from his long-term partner who lives in the U.S. In 2008, this person was detained, threatened and interrogated by border security when he tried to leave Iraq for gender reassignment surgery.

The Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), which has people on the ground in Iraq who work specifically with persecuted Iraqis on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, referred the case to the U.S. Embassy. The embassy will make it possible to travel directly to the United States in order to reduce the risks of traveling to another country while he waits for the resettlement process to run its course. He has completed his medical check and is awaiting his security check in order to travel to the U.S. and be reunited with his partner.

We also support urban refugee protection programs that aim to reach LGBT refugees where they live and work. UNHCR is now working in Kenya with senior police officials to address concerns such as harassment, extortion and violence that specifically targets LGBT refugees. The proactive engagement of UNHCR helps lessen the fear of arrest LGBT refugees have when reporting crimes to the police.

PRM also funds research that helps strengthen and sustain LGBT refugee protection programs around the world. In addition to HIAS’ research, PRM funded the Organization for Refugee Asylum and Migration (ORAM) to research best practices for non-governmental organizations, governments, UNHCR and program funders for urban refugees in Mexico, Uganda and South Africa. This research resulted in the development of important tools that can be used to advocate on behalf of and train relevant stakeholders who engage with LGBT refugees.

What these few examples show is that my bureau and the leadership of the State Department as a whole believe that advancing the human rights of LGBT individuals is a critical diplomatic goal requiring our broadest efforts. We are urging countries to respect the human rights of all of their citizens.

This is done through direct talks led by State Department diplomats with governments, and through international partners like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and through non-governmental organizations. This "Humanitarian Diplomacy" is vital to ensure that countries of first asylum protect sexual minority refugees. But, despite our best efforts, sometimes countries fall short. Sexual minority refugees can be the targets of violence in their countries of asylum, or are unable to request assistance and may be isolated from the established refugee protection architecture. We are actively seeking solutions to prevent this isolation and shield all refugees from violence. In some extreme situations, we resettle urgent cases in dire need of protection.

So that’s what we’re doing at the State Department. But we are all here today to celebrate and delve into HIAS’s report, "Invisible in the City: Protection Gaps Facing Sexual Minority Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Urban Ecuador, Ghana, Israel and Kenya." This report is the result of a one-year qualitative and quantitative research project by HIAS including interviews with sexual minority refugees, refugee protection agents and civil society organizations. The report presents the ways society fails to protect sexual minority refugees and asylum seekers, as articulated by those most directly affected and offers recommendations for mitigating these gaps.

Sixty-six sexual minority refugees, asylum seekers and migrants and 92 representatives of governments, internal organizations and local civil society were interviewed in nine urban locations. One finding, reflected in the report’s title, is that sexual minority refugees and asylum seekers attempt to make themselves ‘invisible’ as a defense mechanism in homophobic environments. We also know that in refugee status determination interviews, these refugees do not frequently identify their cause of persecution as related to their sexual identity.

Mental health issues are of great concern. More than 40% of the respondents suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This may affect their ability to form relationships of trust, particularly in the midst of status determination interviews. So while the situation has improved, more needs to be done, in terms of awareness, training, and protection.

There is some person, somewhere in the world right now, who is suffering and feeling abandoned - just because of who he or she naturally is. That person may be out of our sight, but should not be beyond our reach. To me, the true core of "Invisible in the City" is about how our work benefits that one person. I salute HIAS for looking out for this person and seeking to help them. Let’s hope this report will impact not just our policies, but also safeguard the well-being of people all around the world.

Thank you.