US Erases LGBTQI+ Abuses from International Human Rights Reports

As part of the Trump administration’s continued erasure of queer identities, the US State Department’s new human rights reports no longer include sections on abuses against LGBTQI+ people.

Since 1977, the State Department has produced annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, covering internationally recognised individual, civil, political, and worker rights. These typically included sections on LGBTQI+ rights.

MambaOnline, along with other LGBTQI+ groups in South Africa, has for several years provided the US Embassy with details of LGBTQI+ hate crimes for inclusion in the South Africa report.

The department’s 2024 reports, released this week, however, are notable for omitting the longstanding category that summarised violence and abuse targeting LGBTQI+ people.

Although much of the reporting was completed before Donald Trump took office, the documents were allegedly held back so that changes could be made by his administration.

A Slap in the Face to Activists

The Council for Global Equality (CGE) condemned “the Trump Administration’s efforts to politicise the State Department’s annual human rights reports.”

It described the omissions as “a slap in the face” to LGBTQI+ human rights defenders worldwide, who have worked with US embassies for decades to highlight abuses in their countries.

Mark Bromley, Co-Chair of the CGE, said: “The reports are nearly six months late – presumably allowing time for the State Department to reorient the reports away from established international human rights standards and to strip all LGBTQI+ references from the initial reports that came in from US embassies.”

He added: “This is just the latest insult in the Administration’s wide-ranging assault on the rights of LGBTQI+ persons globally.”

Erasure of Victims’ LGBTQI+ Identities

The CGE noted that where the reports do acknowledge acts against people believed to be LGBTQI+, they often fail to identify the victims.

One example is the 15 individuals in Uganda who were reported to have been forced to undergo anal examinations but were not identified as being targeted for being LGBTQI+. Many other documented abuses under the country’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Act were not mentioned at all.

The Council also highlighted the Thailand report, which claimed “there were no significant changes in the human rights situation” despite the country passing a same-sex marriage law.

“The lack of inclusion of this positive development in the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons in Thailand illustrates the Trump Administration’s contempt for LGBTQI+ persons and their right to live free and equal with dignity under the law,” said the CGE.

Part of Wider Anti-DEI Agenda

This decision comes amid the Trump administration’s broader attempts to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, which critics argue are systematically erasing LGBTQI+ history and identities.

In February, the US National Park Service faced criticism for removing references to transgender and queer individuals from the website of the Stonewall National Monument.

Broader Omissions Beyond LGBTQI+ Rights

According to CNN, the reports have also removed sections on violence against women, government corruption, systemic racial or ethnic violence, and denial of a fair public trial. Critics have accused the Trump administration of downplaying abuses in countries such as El Salvador, whose leaders it supports.

By contrast, the South Africa report has been criticised for including discredited claims by the Trump administration that the government was enabling “abuses against… [and] the repression of… racial minorities in the country.”

The CGE warned that the lack of accurate and comprehensive documentation will hamper diplomatic and advocacy efforts around the world.

“The reports make LGBTQI+ persons and other minorities invisible and, in so doing, they undermine the human rights landscape that protects all of us,” said Bromley.