I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1833 
To establish in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of 
the Department of State a Special Envoy for the Human Rights of 
LGBTQI+ Peoples, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 28, 2023 
Mr. ROBERT GARCIA of California (for himself, Ms. JACOBS, Ms. CROCKETT, 
Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 
AUCHINCLOSS, Mr. SHERMAN, Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ, Ms. SCANLON, 
Mr. KILMER, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. 
ALLRED, Mr. CARBAJAL, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. 
SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. JAYAPAL, 
Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. PORTER, Mr. GREEN of 
Texas, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Mr. 
NEGUSE, Ms. BROWN, Mr. CASTEN, Mr. COSTA, Mr. POCAN, Ms. WIL-
SON of Florida, Mr. PANETTA, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Mr. COHEN, Mr. VARGAS, 
Mr. TORRES of New York, Mr. IVEY, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. SALINAS, Ms. DA-
VIDS of Kansas, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. KEATING, Mr. 
TRONE, Ms. TOKUDA, Ms. MENG, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. 
STEVENS, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Mr. LARSON of 
Connecticut, Mr. SORENSEN, Mr. NORCROSS, Mr. FROST, Ms. CRAIG, 
Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. BONAMICI, and Ms. 
LOFGREN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To establish in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, 
and Labor of the Department of State a Special Envoy 
for the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Peoples, and for 
other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Human 
Rights Defense Act of 2023’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Around the world, LGBTQI+ people face 
violence, stigma, and discrimination based on their 
sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex character-
istics. 
(2) 67 countries have national laws that crim-
inalize same-sex relations and at least 42 United 
Nations member states have legal barriers for free-
dom of expression on issues related to sexual and 
gender diversity. That is equal to roughly 35 percent 
of United Nations member states. 
(3) 11 countries have jurisdictions in which the 
death penalty can be imposed for private, consensual 
same-sex sexual activity. 
(4) Despite recent progress made toward de-
criminalization, marriage equality, and legal gender 
recognition, several countries have introduced anti- 
LGBTQI+ pieces of legislation that would further 
criminalize or stigmatize LGBTQI+ peoples. This 
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includes a draconian law under review in Ghana that 
would outlaw LGBTQI+ relationships or identities, 
as well as actions by community allies, and bills that 
ban so-called LGBTQI+ ‘‘propaganda,’’ such as 
those in Russia and Hungary. 
(5) In anti-LGBTQI+ prosecutions, law en-
forcement officials, working in tandem with medical 
personnel, use the forensically discredited practice of 
forced anal exams to try to prove same-sex sexual 
activity or otherwise to torture or intimidate detain-
ees. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Tor-
ture has described forced anal examinations as a 
form of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading 
treatment and the United Nations Office of the 
High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a re-
port in 2015 calling for governments to ban the 
practice. Human Rights Watch has documented sev-
eral cases in which forced anal examinations have 
been used to sentence individuals for same-sex sex-
ual conduct, including in Uzbekistan and Egypt. 
(6) The closing of civil society space, particu-
larly with the increased passage or enforcement of 
laws that prevent the registration or operations of 
non-governmental 
organizations, 
discriminates 
against LGBTQI+ human rights defenders and is a 
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violation of freedom of association. This includes the 
wrongful closure of Sexual Minorities Uganda 
(SMUG), a leading non-governmental organization 
committed to protecting and advancing the human 
rights of LGBTQI+ individuals in Uganda. 
(7) Extreme violence and insecurity in El Sal-
vador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras has 
driven LGBTQI+ people to flee their countries of 
origin to the United States for protection. At the 
United States border with Mexico, LGBTQI+ asy-
lum seekers face additional violence and many have 
been returned to face persecution in their home 
countries or in third countries that are not safe. 
(8) Studies have shown that structural risks in-
cluding country-level policies, prosecutions, and legal 
barriers might contribute to higher HIV prevalence 
among LGBTQI+ people, especially gay, bisexual, 
and other men who have sex with men. Decrimi-
nalization, decreasing enforcement, and stigma re-
duction are necessary to effective control of HIV. 
(9) The Trans Murder Monitoring Project, 
which monitors homicides of transgender individuals, 
documented at least 327 trans and gender-diverse 
people killed between October 1, 2021, and Sep-
tember 30, 2022. Of these cases, 68 percent of all 
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of the murders occurred in Latin America and the 
Caribbean, with 29 percent of the total occurring in 
Brazil. 
(10) Intersex people experience prejudice and 
discrimination, including the common performance 
of medically unnecessary surgeries without their con-
sent or approval, because their bodies do not con-
form to other people’s expectations about sex and 
gender. 
(11) Violence and discrimination based on sex-
ual orientation and gender identity are documented 
in the Department of State’s annual Country Re-
ports on Human Rights Practices. The report cov-
ering 2021 continues to show a clear pattern of 
human rights violations or abuses in every region of 
the world based on sexual orientation, gender iden-
tity, or sex characteristics. These violations or 
abuses include murder, rape, torture, death threats, 
extortion, and imprisonment, as well as loss of em-
ployment, housing, access to health care, and other 
forms of societal stigma and discrimination. The re-
ports further document LGBTQI+-specific restric-
tions on basic freedoms of assembly, press, and 
speech in every region of the world. 
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(12) On December 6, 2011, President Barack 
Obama released the ‘‘Presidential Memorandum— 
International Initiatives to Advance the Human 
Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender 
Persons’’. The memorandum directed all Federal 
agencies engaged abroad to ensure that United 
States diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and 
protect the human rights of LGBTI+ persons. 
(13) On February 4, 2021, President Joe Biden 
issued a similar memorandum, the ‘‘Memorandum 
on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, 
Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons 
Around the World,’’ to promote and protect the 
human rights of LGBTQI+ persons and establish 
that it is the ‘‘policy of the United States to pursue 
an end to violence and discrimination on the basis 
of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, 
or sex characteristics, and to lead by the power of 
our example in the cause of advancing the human 
rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world’’. 
(14) On February 23, 2015, Secretary of State 
John Kerry appointed senior diplomat Randy Berry 
as the Department of State’s first-ever Special 
Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons. 
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No person was named to that position during the 
Trump Administration. 
(15) On June 25, 2021, President Joe Biden 
announced the appointment of Jessica Stern to serve 
as the United States Special Envoy to Advance the 
Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons. She joined 
the Department of State on September 27, 2021. 
(16) On June 30, 2016, the United Nations 
Human Rights Council passed a resolution cospon-
sored by the United States that established an Inde-
pendent Expert on violence and discrimination based 
on sexual orientation and gender identity to help 
monitor and track discrimination and violence expe-
rienced by LGBTQI+ persons around the world. 
(17) In May 2020, the United Nations Inde-
pendent Expert on protection against violence and 
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gen-
der identity released a report on so-called ‘‘conver-
sion therapy,’’ which is an umbrella term used to de-
scribe interventions based on a belief that a person’s 
sexual orientation or gender identity can and should 
be changed. The report concluded that such prac-
tices represent significant violations of rights to per-
sonal autonomy, health, and free expression and are 
‘‘by their very nature degrading, inhuman and cruel 
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and create a significant risk of torture’’. The Inde-
pendent Expert noted ‘‘the psychological pain and 
suffering inflicted by practices of ‘conversion ther-
apy’ are deep and long-lasting and often exacerbate 
the risk of suicide,’’ and called for a global ban on 
conversion therapy. 
(18) On June 15, 2022, President Joe Biden 
signed an Executive order in part directing the Sec-
retary of State, in collaboration with the Secretary 
of the Treasury, the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services, and the Administrator of the 
United States Agency for International Develop-
ment, to develop an action plan to promote an end 
to so-called ‘‘conversion therapy’’ around the world 
and ensure that United States foreign assistance 
dollars do not fund the practice. 
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States— 
(1) to take effective action to prevent and re-
spond to discrimination and violence against all peo-
ple on any basis internationally, including sexual ori-
entation, gender identity, and sex characteristics, 
and that human rights policy includes attention to 
criminalization, violence, and other discrimination 
against LGBTQI+ people; 
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(2) to systematically integrate and coordinate 
into United States foreign policy efforts to prevent 
and respond to criminalization, discrimination, and 
violence against LGBTQI+ people internationally; 
(3) to support and build local capacity in coun-
tries around the world, including of governments at 
all levels and nongovernmental organizations, to pre-
vent and respond to criminalization, discrimination, 
and violence against LGBTQI+ people internation-
ally; 
(4) to consult, cooperate, coordinate, and col-
laborate with a wide variety of nongovernmental 
partners, including faith-based organizations and 
LGBTQI+-led organizations, with demonstrated ex-
perience in preventing and responding to criminal-
ization, 
discrimination, 
and 
violence 
against 
LGBTQI+ people internationally; 
(5) to employ a multisectoral approach to pre-
venting and responding to criminalization, discrimi-
nation, and violence against LGBTQI+ people inter-
nationally, including activities in the economic, edu-
cation, health, nutrition, legal, and judicial sectors; 
(6) to work at all levels, from the individual to 
the family, community, local, national, and inter-
national levels, to prevent and respond to criminal-
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ization, 
discrimination, 
and 
violence 
against 
LGBTQI+ people internationally; 
(7) to enhance training by United States per-
sonnel of professional foreign military and police 
forces and judicial officials to include appropriate 
and thorough LGBTQI+-specific instruction on pre-
venting and responding to criminalization, discrimi-
nation, and violence based on sexual orientation and 
gender identity; 
(8) to engage non-LGBTQI+ people as allies 
and partners, as an essential element of making sus-
tained reductions in criminalization, discrimination, 
and violence against LGBTQI+ people internation-
ally; 
(9) to require that all Federal contractors and 
grant recipients awarded a contract or receiving a 
grant, as the case may be, under an international 
program of the United States Government establish 
appropriate policies and take effective measures to 
ensure the protection and safety of their staff and 
workplace, including from discrimination and vio-
lence directed against LGBTQI+ people and those 
who provide services to them; 
(10) to exert sustained international leadership, 
including in bilateral and multilateral fora, to pre-
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