US President Joe Biden has been urged to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people following findings of a “deliberate effort” to “roll back human rights” in the United States.
Making the comments at a UN press conference, the independent UN expert Victor Madrigal-Borloz explained that “equality is not yet within reach and in many cases not within sight” for LGBTQ+ Americans “despite five decades of progress.”
Madrigal-Borloz added that he was “deeply alarmed by a widespread, profoundly negative riptide, created by deliberate actions to roll back the human rights of LGBT people at state level” and described anti-LGBTQ+ efforts as a “veritable plague of so-called anti-LGBT bills” sweeping across the USA.
“The evidence shows that, without exception, these actions rely on prejudiced and stigmatising views of LGBT persons, in particular transgender children and youth, and seek to leverage their lives as props for political profit.”
Madrigal-Borloz said the United States played a central role in designing and adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has provided a compass toward a world where all persons see their dignity respected and live free and equal.
“The Biden-Harris administration has adopted powerful and meaningful actions that are in conformity with international human rights law, reveal a thoughtful strategy created through participative approaches, and provide significant capacity for their implementation. This is exactly the combination of values, knowledge, and muscle that can drive social change.”
“In light of a concerted attack to undermine these actions, I exhort the administration to redouble its efforts to support the human rights of all LGBT persons living under its jurisdiction and helping them to safe waters,” he concluded.
