‘Equality is not within sight’: UN expert warns US to protect LGBTQ+ civil rightsVictor Madrigal-Borloz says he’s ‘deeply alarmed’ that prior progress is under threat at both state and federal levels A United Nations expert warned that some US state governments are steadily undermining and eliminating lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse people’s civil rights, and he urged the Joe Biden White House to strengthen protective measures for them.Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the diplomatic organization’s independent expert on protection against gender- and sexual orientation-based violence and discrimination, said he is “deeply alarmed” that prior progress, such as the US supreme court’s legalization of gay marriage in 2015, is under threat at both the state and federal levels in America.Armed left and rightwing protesters face off at ‘drag brunch’ in Texas Read more“Equality is not within reach, and often not even within sight” for members of [LGBTQ+] communities in the US, Madrigal-Borloz said after a 10-day trip in his role with the UN that had various stops across the country.The expert’s remarks come after the Republican-dominated government of Florida this summer enacted a “don’t say gay” law forbidding schoolchildren in kindergarten through third grade from receiving classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.Meanwhile, the states of Utah, Idaho, West Virginia and Indiana are fighting to enforce bans restricting transgender student-athletes from participating in scholastic sports. Supreme court justice Clarence Thomas favorably suggested the right to same-sex marriage could be overturned after the elimination of nationwide abortion rights. And drag queens are increasingly reporting rightwing harassment.Madrigal-Borloz acknowledged that Biden had attempted to blunt some of the anti-LGBTQ+ state legislation through an executive order that he signed in June. The order aimed to dry up federal funding for the discredited practice of “conversion therapy”, which seeks to forcefully change the sexual orientation of LGBTQ+ youth. And it also included instructions for the federal health and education departments to widen access to gender-affirming medical care while also finding other ways to counter laws in conservative-controlled states that ban those treatments for transgender.Nonetheless, Madrigal-Borloz suggested that executive order alone wouldn’t offer much resistance to the “concerted attack” LGBTQ+ Americans are facing from some of their own government leaders.“I am deeply alarmed by a widespread, profoundly negative riptide created by deliberate actions to roll back the human rights of [LGBTQ+] people at [the] state level,” he said in remarks that the UN distributed in a news release on Tuesday. “The evidence shows that, without exception, these actions rely on prejudiced and stigmatizing views of [LGBTQ+] persons, in particular transgender children and youth, and seek to leverage their lives as props for political profit.”Madrigal-Borloz is a Costa Rican attorney who is also a lecturer at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His trip across the US included stops in Washington DC, Miami, San Diego and Birmingham, Alabama, the UN’s news release said.The UN, based in New York City, added that Madrigal-Borloz met with state officials and members of LGBTQ+ communities, who informed him of the “significant inequality in relation to health, education, employment and housing” that they are enduring, among other issues.TopicsLGBTQ+ rightsUnited NationsUS politicsHuman rightsReuse this content More
