Countries Use COVID-19 to Promote LGBT Agenda with U.S. Support

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NEW YORK, October 16 (C-Fam) Thirty governments, including the Trump administration, called on countries to make the specific health needs of homosexual men, transgender individuals, and others who identify as LGBT a priority in government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is critical that domestic and global responses to COVID-19 are mindful of the intersecting needs of LGBTI persons,” they told the General Assembly at the opening of the debate on social and humanitarian issues last week.

The statement delivered by the delegation of Nepal on behalf of the 30-strong LGBT Core Group calls for “targeted measures to address the disproportionate impact” and “particular and unique effect” of COVID-19 on individuals who identify as LGBT.

The countries identified “LGBTI persons” as facing “increased discrimination and stigmatization” during the COVID-19 pandemic, including through the “introduction of discriminatory policies or practices into emergency legislation and lockdown procedures.” They also claimed that individuals who identify as LGBTI are at “much higher risk of violence during the pandemic.”

The statement went beyond just the impact of COVID-19. It called the global shutdown caused by the pandemic an “opportune moment to reassess and evaluate normative structures” more broadly.

The only concrete example of the specific LGBT health needs addressed in the statement was the difficulty individuals who identify as transgender and intersex “who may have specific health requirements” in accessing medical treatment and care because of lockdowns—likely referring to transgender hormone therapies and sex change operations.

The statement of the LGBT Core Group welcomed unconditionally the work of the UN human rights system to promote LGBT rights through non-binding reports.

Specifically, it endorsed a guidance note of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued in April which instructed countries not to disrupt “hormonal treatment and gender affirming treatments for trans people.” Gender affirming treatments is an accepted way to refer to sex change operations.

Among the reports issued this year by the UN human rights office are a report of the UN Independent Expert on Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The report targeted any form of talk therapy to help individuals overcome or cope with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria. It called for such therapy to be banned.

The Trump administration remained in the LGBT Core Group, which the U.S. joined under the Obama administration. U.S. diplomats have continued to promote LGBT rights in the UN Human Rights Council, even after the U.S. withdrew from the international body in 2018. And U.S. diplomats continue to routinely support the inclusion of the controversial category “sexual orientation and gender identity” in UN resolutions during UN negotiations.

UN diplomats have told the Friday Fax that U.S. advocacy for LGBT rights is inconsistent with efforts of the Trump administration to promote life and the family. There have been instances where it has hurt U.S. pro-life diplomacy.

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