Releasing the first ever passports with x jenga markers indicating transgender people. They also talked about recent efforts to recruit more lgbtq people in the peace corps. Good afternoon. Walking to the center for strategic and international studies. I am marti flacks from direct of Human Rights Initiative and principle of international i am delightedi to be cohosting todays events with the diversity leadership in International Affairs program here at csis and with the support of our Employee Resource Group on this topic. Its wonderful to see so many of you here in person in the Building Back at csis and we also welcome those who are joining us via the live stream. We host todays event on investment of the rights of lgbtqia people through u. S. Foreign policy and add an interesting moment, and a moment of great dichotomy. The efforts of advocates and the support of some governments, protection of lgbtqia right around the world is increasing in many places. Weve seen several brightt spots that stand out, a testament to efforts by those advocates and activists over the past year. In december chilis parliament only pass samesex marriage bill, the 31st country in the world to do so, and just this month that high cabinet endorsed a significant Civil Partnership bill. In argentine and colombia in the u. S. Federal government now recognize nonbinary identities in the federal and nationalge ids. Kuwait Constitutional Court struck down a law that had been used by Security Forces to enable the abuse of transgender individuals. But for every bright spot we see many continuous attacks on lgbtqia rights. We see efforts like the one in ghana to pass new repressive legislation and receive renewed attacksce on activists in places like turkey and kazakhstan, an increase in attacks on transgender people a special transgender women of color here in the united states. Weve also watch leaders around the world in places like russia, hungary and poland weaponized antilgbtqia frederick to motivate inactivate a specific set of constituents and to seat and authoritarian political agenda. And the reference by the russian patriarch in march to gay parades in ukraine as a justification for the russian invasion of ukraine was the peak of this kind of particular political strategy that we have to be aware of. We also know that progress even the democraticc environments is not a reversible and that backsliding is real and that reality was brought home to us last week with the u. S. Supreme courts decision in dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health with its immediate application for reproductive rights and his potential future implications on lgbtqia rights. And so for us the question of how we protect the fundamental rights must inevitably be focused not only on changing the behavior of the most repressive regimes by protecting a gains that have been made in well. Acies as and it is into virgo component to build more resilient sustainable democratic systems. Lgbtqia rights are in many ways ail bellwether for broader human rights and democracy issues. And so thats why i am very excited to that end that we have with us a panel of real experts to talk about how the u. S. Government and the Advocacy Community are thinking about these challenges, what role lgbtqia rights play in the Global Human Rights and democracy agenda and what the road ahead for u. S. Foreign policy shouldht look like. Here to facilitate that discussion isa, my colleague hadeil alile users as a Deputy Director at csis diversity of leadership at International Affairs program. She also chairs the consortium and its programming director for the asic across the pond initiative at women of color advancing key security and conflict confirmation were thrilled to have our panelists here today and i will turn it over to hadeil to facilitate that conversation. Hadeil. Thank you so much, marty. They did to the Human Rights Initiative for the partnership to the event and lgbtqia for the leadership in this space. I would be remiss if i did not think the staff was worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this event happen, lauren, naz and madeline. Welcome to all of you to csis joining us here in person and thanks to those of you joining us virtually. It is my honor to be a moderator for todays event on placing lgbtqia rights at the center for u. S. Foreign policy. To kickla off todays event i am delighted to introduce special envoy Jessica Stern who uses auburn and ends as u. S. Special envoy to advance the human rightsy of lgbtqia persons of the Us Department of state. Prior to joining the state Department Special envoy stern led Action International leading lgbtqia human rights organizations as executive director for ten years. Special envoy stern is been a researcher at human rights watch,n a fellow at amnesty international, program directr for Constitutional Rights and adjunct associate professor at Columbia University school of international and public affairs. She is a recipient of numerous honors including from attitude magazine, the city news and the metropolitan community church. Special envoy stern its an honor to have you. I give you the floor for your opening remarks and sharing about the First Ever Agency reports on advancing the human rights of lgbtqia persons around the world. Thank you so much, hadeil and thank you marti for the wonderful opening. Its really good to be here today on the last day of pride month. I am always inspired by people that are not done celebrating the month and will come to a intellectual panel rather than just the prideat marches and the parties. As hadeil said im the special envoy for advancement of human rights lgbtqia persons, and this is a really powerful moment if youre concerned with the safety and wellbeing of lgbtqia people around thehe world. Marti opened with some really excellent examples of progress and challenges for this community. I started my day with a call this morning with a roundtable of lgbtqi presenters in turkey. I started my day that way for a number of reasons. The offense had been planned for somemy time but we had also planned the event because we had been following the developments for the lgbtqia community in turkey with some concern. You may be aware that since 2016 all pride marches havee been banned across turkey, and this year was no exception. Somehow, with some fortitude that is almost unimaginable, lgbtqia activists found way to celebrate, to protest and to come together but this weekend istanbul, in spite of peoples very careful efforts to honor their community and their self, there were arrests of over 350 lgbtqia people and their allies as he tried to honor pride month and all that it stands for them. In the past eight years the total number of people arrested at lgbtqia prides in istanbul was around 100. So this year that seemed a fourfold increase. And to think when we are here and a space like this whether we are watching online or sitting in this comfortable room we have to ask ourselves, what would it cost to have this conversation in another place . And what can we all do to make sure that everybody, regardless of the countries that they are in, has a right to talk about human rights, the rule of law and access to healthcare, education, and wellbeing for lgbtqia people. So hadeil asked me to start off by talking about what the Biden Administration has done. Since President Biden released his president ial memorandum on lgbtqia inclusion in u. S. Foreign policy and foreign assistance which came out february 4, 2021. My Office Working with some incredible people in the audience right now partnered withth the white house to releae the one you report looking at whole of government approach, looking at the efforts that we made from usaid, from the peace corps, from the department of the treasury and the department of state and beyond to make sure were developing targeted programs to include lgbtqia people and everything that we do and mainstreaming this Vulnerable Group of people and everything from the policy level to the speeches to the behind the scenes conversations. And this is really important and this directive comes from the top. As President Bidens interim National Security strategy states, quote, when we defend the equal rights of all people, women andal girls, lgbtqia individuals, members of indigenous communities, people withem disabilities, people of every ethnic background and religion, we help ensure that those rights are protected for our own children in america. And so i bring up this to emphasize domestic and Foreign Policy are two sides of the same coin, okay . Weto have to fight for human rights in all contexts. Th the report that a dreidel here has read, come all 126 pages of it, is really, really important. To the best of my own knowledge it is the first time any government has ever released a report documenting its efforts to include lgbtqia people in Foreign Policy and for resistance. Thats a big deal, right . You can imagine why we have done it. We have done it to be transparent about our efforts, and also to lay a marker down for ourselves, in essence to take inventory of the work done in just one year, but also to take stock so that we know the work that still needs to be done. I will just may be say one more thing maybe one example from the report. There are lots of examples of progress. There are some examples that i think of as relatively modest, but if we want to change Foreign Policy, the way we do it is through lots of small and issues come together. Ill give you an example to show you how important it is to do this work. The peace corps thought if you want to have a more diverse set of people in the peace corps we need to ensure our Recruitment Practices are diverse. So the peace corps convened a special transgender recruitment day to ensure transgender people know they are welcome in the peace corps, they are wanted in the peace corps and if theres a transgender person serving in the peace corps theyre not alone. Theres a cohort of people. Thats an example of one tangible thing that makes inclusion happen. Ill give you an example of something at a policy level that im in normalcy proud of. At the department of state we released the first ever u. S. Passport which has the exgender marker. We did so on april 11 of this year. Had you heard about this . Okay, some people, some people shaking their heads. Now you know and i you can tell your friends, butut this really matters because the x gender marker means that we recognize more than the binary categories of male and female. So x stands for unidentified or other and its a really concrete way of saying that everyone should have access to legal identity before the law and that our government isbe catching up with the lived realities of lgbtqia people. So there are many more examples but i believe it there because i have given you a taste. Thank you, special envoy stir. As you make in the transparency and the reporting as well, i think one of the aims of this report is hopefully to inspire other governments to promote human rights of lgbtqia persons and find ways to integrate their needs in Foreign Policy. What were your goals with the release of the support and do you think those goals have been accomplished . Well, deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman launched the report for us and she said this is not a victory lap. And i think thats really important when you ask that question, hadeil. Are the goals accomplished . You can never really finished your work for lgbtqia writes and tell homophobia, transcoder, by foti, enter phobia at all related forms of intolerance are eradicated, our work will never be done. The part of the reason why this report matter so much is because there are 70 countries around the world the still criminalize homosexual status or convict. When you hear the number and it almost becomes background is because for those of us to follow this work we have heard it soll many times, but when i started doing this work 20 years ago that number was around 90. In the last six years alone, Nine Countries that decriminalize homosexual status or conduct, which means that the global trend is towards decriminalization. And it is not limited to one kind of country or one region of the world. The trend is towards the recognition of the fundamental dignity of lgbtqia people. At that want to say that and i save it to ant to audience of americans because i think we are very concerned with the backlash in the rollback on our rights, and particular parts of the lgbtqia community are targeted. But i want to say that once you have begun the process of recognizing lgbtqia people are entitled to equal rights, you just cant go back. So the trajectory of progress is on our side. Thank you so much. This is Perfect Timing to bring into the conversation senior coordinator jay gilliam, welcome to csis. She serves as agencies lead to elevate issues concerning lgbt plus and other people of diverse genders and sexuality. In his role he works to integrate lgbtq people into u. S. Aid inclusive developing programs, policies and research and training. And most recently he was engagement and Communications Adviser at the center for education at usa. Welcome and i will give you the floor to share your opening remarks for great, thank you but really great introduction. Good afternoon, everyone and for those doing online hello. My name isod jay gilliam. I use pronouns key, his. I am the coordinator. First i want to say thank you to csis for hosting this event, for putting a spotlight on lgbtqia issues, and turned the to human rights and the development, Inclusive Developmentnt of lgbtqia persons run will. I want to go back to remarks at the opening and just say that we are also following the recent events that a been very troubling for everyone. At they outset i want to make clear that with u. S. Aid we will continue to prioritize parking with governments, private sector, international and nongovernmental organizations to really work to improve the Health Outcomes including advancing sexual and Reproductive Health and rights. So this means our programs and our policies are not going to be changing, despite the Dobbs Decision that is been made here. I also want to acknowledge as we all know this decision not only impacts women rights. It impacts all who can be pregnant including transmission, nonbinary people and and other gender diverse individuals. We have to keep in mind those rights that are being taken away here, we have to be mindful they have reverberations for all of us around the world. But thankfully we are part of an administration jessica and i were lgbtqia writes our human rights, full stop. And administrator power who leads usaid also is committed to advancing lgbtqia Inclusive Development but for some of you might be saying what does that mean exactly . Inclusive development is an Equitable Development approach. Itse build an understanding tht every individual and community, those come from diverse identities and experiences, everyonene is instrumental in te transformation of their ownan society. Their engagement for thehe developing process leads to Better Development i outcomes. As chordate im working with my colleagues around the world who are implement and partners and hopefully with all of you to be really advancing this ambitious vision. Inclusive Development Means integrating lgbtqia equities and all his work were doing at usaid. It means making usaid more accessible to lgbtqia persons and countries, both leaders, advocates, organizations and those in the community. It means making sure that research we arere supporting is getting to actionable outcome. And it also ensures that we as a usaid continue to be a leader in the space, and todays conversation we hope to be able to share some of the ways we been advancing lgbtqia inclusive developing. I want to say thank you to jessica and our colleagues for the herculean effort and giving the h inner agencies report out. We were really proud to be able to profile a number of examples of what lgbtqia Inclusive Development looks like. One example of that is from the Dominican Republic where we have a partnership with the u. N. Developmentme program called beg lgbtqi in the craving. Through the program theres been a number of highlights and successes but two we highlighted in the report were one, the launch of a national lgbtqia survey in the Dominican Republic which helps us understand what the Community Looks like, what their needs and challenges are. At another from that program intersects report that really document the lived realities of people in the region of the caribbean and latin america. Those are examples of the ways we are really trying to advance lgbtqia Inclusive Development. I also want to mention a a coe component of this work includes working with local partners, local lgbtqia communities and administrator power has made advancing localization efforts of priority the way that she wants to advance developments. I see these things happen working handinhand with each other and th