We welcome this first-ever effort from the Biden-Harris administration to document our nation’s progress on protecting and promoting LGBTQ+ rights around the world. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the steps the administration has taken to restore LGBTQ+ rights as a central tenet of our U.S. foreign policy goals. Too many LGBTQ+ people around the world are under threat every day, many of them from their own governments. In conflict zones like Ukraine, Afghanistan and more, LGBTQ+ people routinely bear a disproportionate brunt of the horrible effects of violence – violence that in many cases deliberately targets LGBTQ+ populations. HRC is grateful that from Washington, DC to U.S. embassies around the globe, the human rights of LGBTQ+ communities are a priority and that the administration is following through on its promise to support global LGBTQ+ equality.

It is clear that more remains to be done to bolster global LGBTQ+ rights. We hope that this report will spur the administration to adopt and strengthen non-discrimination protections across all of its international agencies, ensure adequate and inclusive funding for LGBTQ+ programs at the State Department and USAID, and rebuild the nation's broken refugee and asylum system."