Report from the Conference on the Rights of LGBT People in Europe

I was privileged to represent NCTE and join lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex activists from across Europe, as well as a few fellow North Americans, last month in Paris at the “Conference on the Rights of LGBT People in Europe”, hosted by the governments of France and Poland.

The conference, attended by government ministers and human rights activists from around the continent, is part of a series of international meetings focused on elevating these issues within the global human rights framework. An Asian regional meeting was held earlier in March in Kathmandu, Nepal, and a Latin American regional meeting will be held this week in Brasilia, Brazil, concluding in mid-April with a global summit in Oslo, Norway, hosted by the South African and Norwegian governments.

NCTE was invited to attend as a member of the Council for Global Equality, together with Council staffer Mark Bromley, and I was very honored to be asked to speak on one of the workshop panels regarding legal gender recognition as a human rights issue. The conference was a tremendous opportunity to meet colleagues from Transgender Europe (TGEU), the Organization Intersex International, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association of Europe (ILGA-Europe), and other ILGA-Europe member organizations. These activists are doing fantastic work across Europe and beyond. No country today can boast a perfect record when it comes to the human rights of LGBTI people – though some have further to go than others – and these activists along with others around the world are doing incredible work from which US activists should draw inspiration and insight.

I was particularly honored not only to attend but to participate as a speaker in a workshop on “Liberties – Fighting Discrimination Against LGBT Persons,” which focused on the topics of gender recognition and attacks on the rights of expression and assembly. The following are my prepared remarks from the workshop:

I would like to outline for our discussion this afternoon the issue of gender recognition and its connection to fundamental rights.

The designation of one’s gender by the state is a constant presence in everyday life today. For most it is experienced as perhaps benign and hardly noticed, but for millions of trans people today it is a source of ever present anxiety, humiliation, and fear, because our official documents and records announce a gender at odds with our core personal identity. This means that, for example, a trans woman like myself must display a male gender marker every time she seeks to:

• apply for employment
• enroll in school
• open a bank account
• travel
• apply for public benefits
• or even seek help in a crisis

Lack of gender recognition, and the ever present documentation of the wrong gender identifier not only “outs” individuals involuntarily in numerous and often vulnerable situations; it not only thrusts one’s trans status into the forefront in every part of social and economic life; it does even more than that. Lack of gender recognition also has the effect if conveying to everyone we encounter the stigmatizing message that we are not who we say we are, and implicitly that our core identity is a kind of fraud, to be disregarded or regarded with disdain.  In effect, lack of gender recognition imposes a mark of inferior social status.

NCTE Leads Effort to End LGBTI Sexual Abuse in Immigration Detention

Ana-Haydee Urda (left front) in the 2012 rally against private prisons sponsored by United Methodist Women and the United Methodist Task Force on Immigration. A UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey.

Last week, the National Center for Transgender Equality, with our partners at Just Detention International  led advocacy efforts urging Secretary Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to strengthen protections against sexual abuse of LGBT people and people with intersex conditions in immigration detention. In addition to organizing over 800 individual comments and dozens of organizational comments, NCTE joined eight other national LGBT and allied groups in filing over 30 pages of public comments on the proposed regulations that address this problem, which is part of the implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

Sexual abuse of LGBT people and people with intersex conditions violates their basic human rights. The U.S. government has an obligation to provide safe and humane conditions for people in confinement. Not doing so impedes detainee’s ability to obtain lawful immigration status when eligible and to successfully adjust back into the community. Additionally, public health considerations like the widespread transmission of HIV and the growing rates of depression, anxiety and suicide ideation among immigration detainees demand swift action by the Department of Homeland Security.

UN Report: Forced Sterilization of Trans People “is Torture”

On February 1, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT) issued a report on abusive practices in health care settings that has important implications for LGBT people and people with intersex conditions.

The report calls for repealing laws allowing “genital-normalizing” surgery on children with intersex conditions, and ending practices whereby LGBT patients or those with intersex conditions are subjected to unethical experimentation or made a subject of medical display without consent. The report also condemns the practice of so-called “reparative therapies” or “conversion therapies” that purport to change an individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Especially notable for transgender people was the Special Rapporteur’s call for ending forced or coerced sterilization of transgender people as condition of recognizing their gender identities.

Section 39 of the report says, “…Medical care that causes severe suffering for no justifiable reason can be considered cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and if there is State involvement and specific intent, it is torture.”

NCTE Meets with Ecuadorian LGBT Activists

NCTE Director of Policy Harper Jean Tobin with the delegation of Ecuadorian LGBT Activists.

Last Tuesday, I was thrilled, along with colleagues from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, to meet and discuss LGBT activism with a group of incredible LGBT activists from Ecuador. The U.S. State Department regularly facilitates visits by distinguished community leaders and human rights activists from around the world to meet and exchange knowledge with their counterparts and other experts in the US. In recent years, the State Department’s exchange programs have increasingly connected international LGBT activists with U.S.-based activists, and the results have been enriching for all involved. As part of this all-LGBT, all-Ecuadorian visit, our guests were meeting with leaders and activists here in the nation’s capitol and elsewhere.

While we Americans can often be very, very US-centric in our focus, we have a lot to learn from our counterparts around the world. This was first driven home for me years ago when I wrote a scholarly article on gender identity recognition around the world, and discovered that some nations such as the United Kingdom and Spain were, at least by some measures, well ahead of the United States when it comes to the rights of transgender people. In recent years there has been a tremendous amount of LGBT and specifically transgender activism throughout much of Latin America, including major developments in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina to name a few.

Watch: Proyecto Transgenero’s video educating Ecuadorians about trans people and the identification challenges trans people face.

Argentina passes historic law on gender recognition, access to health care

Argentina took two giant steps forward for trans equality yesterday, approving legislation that both ensures insurance coverage for transition-related medical care and at the same time eliminates medical requirement for official recognition of one’s gender identity.The law, backed by President Cristina Fernandez, passed the nation’s Senate Wednesday by a vote of 55-0, with one abstention and a dozen lawmakers declaring themselves absent. The move by South America’s third most populous nation, follows the course of neighboring Uruguay as well as others including Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, in providing for legal recognition of trans people’s identities without requiring specific medical procedures or a burdensome and potentially arbitrary judicial process.

The new law begins by stating that all persons have the right to the free development and recognition of their gender identity and to be treated in accord with that identity in the way they are officially identified. The law creates an official administrative procedure where by any adult, or any minor with the support of their guardians, may apply to change their sex listed in the civil registry. Neither judicial approval nor proof of specific psychological or medical treatments is required. Hormonal and surgical treatment for transgender people – which previously often required a court’s approval – will now be freely available and must be covered by public and private health plans. Thus, the law reflects the principle that individuals should control both their own identities and their own bodies, and should neither have unwanted medical procedures imposed on them nor have medically necessary ones denied. (A full English translation of the law is not yet available; this description is based on the official Spanish version.)

This law reflects the hard work of trans and LGBT advocates in Argentina as well as the growing trend of recognition for trans people’s identities and medical needs internationally.

NCTE Applauds Obama Administrations Historic Call for LGBT Human Rights Worldwide

In response to Secretary Clinton’s speech at the United Nations calling for global support of basic LGBT human rights, and President Obama’s Memorandum to federal agencies abroad, NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling issued the following statement:

Secretary Clinton spoke about LGBT rights at the UN in Geneva and expressed a strong U.S. position in support of respect and fair treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people worldwide, making a case that ensuring our human rights is a basic responsibility of the United States and the world. Concurrently, President Obama released a Presidential Memorandum directing all federal agencies abroad to promote and protect the human rights of LGBT people in U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance work.The National Center for Transgender Equality applauds their continued leadership in this area.

Read a rough transcript of Sec. Clinton’s remarks here.

Read the official Memorandum below.

 

View this document on Scribd

UN Passes Resolution to Prevent Human Rights Violations for LGBT People

Today, the international community took an important step in the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights around the world. In a narrow 23-19 vote, the United Nation’s Human Rights Council passed a resolution calling attention to the daily mistreatment, discrimination and violence that LGBT people face. It charges the Human Rights Council High Commissioner, Navanethem Pillay, with preparing and presenting a study on discriminatory laws and practices that restrict or oppress LGBT people.  The resolution also establishes appropriate follow-up to seek recommendations to eliminate them.

This act makes history as the first time the UN passed a resolution solely focused on protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In December 2008, 66 countries signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirming protections of all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, from which the United States was sorely absent in support. While inspiring hope in many countries, the 2008 statement had little power to create significant change for those struggling. However, today’s announcement has strong potential to bring attention to the horrifying experiences of transgender people by thoroughly documenting the laws and institutions that perpetuate them.  Notably, this resolution marks the first time that sexual orientation and gender identity has ever been included in a formal UN resolution, showing a distinct improvement in worldwide awareness of transgender rights.

The Obama Administration has been a strong advocate for worldwide LGBT rights, and was a key player in the passing of today’s resolution. Mara Keisling, the National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director said, “This resolution is a historic step in the global movement for transgender rights and strengthens our own work at home.” She continued, “I am proud of our country’s support of the resolution. President Obama and Secretary Clinton’s leadership here is among many examples of this Administration’s commitment to real change for transgender people everywhere.”

JUNE 20th UPDATE:  President Obama released the following statement on the passage of the resolution:

Today, for the first time in history, the United Nations adopted a resolution dedicated to advancing the basic human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. This marks a significant milestone in the long struggle for equality, and the beginning of a universal recognition that LGBT persons are endowed with the same inalienable rights — and entitled to the same protections — as all human beings.  The United States stands proudly with those nations that are standing up to intolerance, discrimination, and homophobia.  Advancing equality for LGBT persons should be the work of all peoples and all nations.  LGBT persons are entitled to equal treatment, equal protection, and the dignity that comes with being full members of our diverse societies.  As the United Nations begins to codify and enshrine the promise of equality for LGBT persons, the world becomes a safer, more respectful, and more humane place for all people.

VICTORY: State Department Makes Additional Changes

The U.S. State Department has announced some small but important additional changes to its policy for updating gender on U.S. passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad (CRBAs). The changes make clear that any physician who has treated or evaluated a passport applicant may certify that he or she has had appropriate treatment for gender transition. The revised policy also clarifies language and procedures to ensure that individuals with intersex condition can obtain documents with the correct gender.

In June 2010, the Obama Administration announced a new policy for updating gender markers on passports and CRBAs. For the first time, the June policy enabled transgender people to a passport that reflects their current gender without providing details of specific medical or surgical procedures. Instead, applicants could provide certification from a physician that they had received “appropriate clinical treatment” for gender transition. This policy was the result of years of advocacy, and represented a significant advance in providing safe, humane and dignified treatment of transgender people.

The policy announced in June was a huge step forward, but it was not perfect. It contained rigid and unnecessary restrictions on which physicians could write supporting letters for applicants, and contained confusing provisions regarding people with intersex conditions. With input from NCTE and other organizations, the Department moved swiftly to clarify and improve the policy. The passport policy as it now stands represents a model that other federal agencies, such as the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, should move swiftly to adopt.

NCTE has prepared a revised resource that fully explains the new guidelines and outlines the ways in which transgender people can make changes to their passports and CRBAs. We are thankful for our colleagues at the Council for Global Equality, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Lesbian Rights for their wonderful collaborative work on this vital issue.