I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7291 
To protect human rights and enhance opportunities for LGBTI people around 
the world, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 13, 2018 
Ms. TITUS (for herself, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Ms. 
LOFGREN, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. TAKANO, and Mr. NADLER) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
A BILL 
To protect human rights and enhance opportunities for 
LGBTI people around the world, and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Greater Leadership 
Overseas for the Benefit of Equality Act of 2018’’ or the 
‘‘GLOBE Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) The norms of good governance, human 
rights protections, and the rule of law have been vio-
lated unconscionably with respect to lesbian, gay, bi-
sexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) peoples in 
an overwhelming majority of countries around the 
world, where LGBTI people face violence, hatred, 
bigotry and discrimination because of who they are 
and whom they love. 
(2) In 75 countries, or almost 40 percent of the 
world, same-sex relations and relationships are 
criminalized. These include Nigeria, Egypt, and 
Uganda, among others. Homosexuality is punishable 
by death in at least 8 countries. Many countries also 
criminalize or otherwise prohibit cross-dressing and 
gender-affirming treatments for transgender individ-
uals. 
(3) Criminalizing LGBTI status or conduct is 
at the base of political, social and economic injustice 
toward LGBTI individuals in many countries. 
(4) The World Bank has begun to measure the 
macro-economic costs of criminal laws targeting 
LGBTI individuals through lost productivity, detri-
mental health outcomes and violence, as a step to-
ward mitigating those costs. 
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(5) Violence and discrimination based on sexual 
orientation and gender identity are documented in 
the Department of State’s annual Country Human 
Rights Reports to Congress. These reports continue 
to show a clear pattern of human rights violations 
in every region of the world based on sexual orienta-
tion and gender identity. 
(6) These violations include murder, rape, tor-
ture, death threats, extortion, and imprisonment, in 
many cases with the complicity of governing offi-
cials. In the Russian autonomous region of 
Chechnya, Chechen authorities have been found di-
rectly complicit in the round-up, torture, and mur-
ders of LGBTI men. In Indonesia, public humilia-
tion and punishment of gay men has been carried 
out. In Jamaica, lesbian women have been subjected 
to so-called ‘‘corrective rape’’. 
(7) As documented by the State Department, 
LGBTI individuals are subjected in many countries 
to capricious imprisonment, loss of employment, 
housing, access to health care, and societal stigma 
and discrimination. LGBTI-specific restrictions on 
basic freedoms of assembly, press, and speech exist 
in every region of the world. Public support for 
LGBTI communities is prohibited in many coun-
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tries, 
including 
Russia, 
Belarus, 
Moldova, 
Kyrgyzstan, and Egypt. 
(8) Targeted sanctions are an important tool to 
push for accountability for violations of the human 
rights of LGBTI people. In December 2017, the 
United States imposed sanctions on Chechen Presi-
dent Ramzan Kadyrov and head of the Chechen 
Ministry of Internal Affairs Ayub Kataev, for com-
mitting extrajudicial imprisonment, torture, and 
murder, including of gay men, in Chechnya. 
(9) Anti-LGBTI laws and discrimination pose 
significant risks for LGBTI youth who come out to 
their family or community and often face rejection, 
homelessness, and limited educational and economic 
opportunities. These factors contribute to increased 
risks of substance abuse, suicide, and HIV infection 
among LGBTI youth. 
(10) Anti-LGBTI laws also increase global 
health risks. Studies have shown that when LGBTI 
people, especially LGBTI youth, face discrimination, 
they are less likely to seek HIV testing, prevention, 
and treatment services. In countries such as Tan-
zania, government authorities have closed down ac-
cess to HIV services for gay men. 
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(11) LGBTI populations are disproportionately 
impacted by the Mexico City Policy, also widely re-
ferred to as the ‘‘global gag rule’’, which was rein-
stated and expanded by President Donald J. Trump 
on January 23, 2017. LGBTI people often receive 
much of their healthcare through reproductive health 
clinics, and organizations that cannot comply with 
the policy are forced to discontinue work on United 
States-supported global health projects that are fre-
quently used by LGBTI populations, including HIV 
prevention and treatment, stigma reduction, and re-
search. 
(12) Because they face tremendous discrimina-
tion in the formal labor sector, many sex workers 
are also LGBTI individuals, and many sex-worker- 
led programs and clinics serve the LGBTI commu-
nity with safe, non-stigmatizing, medical and social 
care. USAID has also referred to sex workers as a 
‘‘most-at-risk population’’. The anti-prostitution loy-
alty oath that health care providers receiving United 
States assistance must take isolates sex-worker-led 
and serving groups from programs and reinforces 
stigma, undermining both the global AIDS response 
and human rights. The Supreme Court found this 
requirement unconstitutional as it applies to United 
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States nongovernmental organizations and their for-
eign affiliates in 2013. 
(13) According to the Trans Murder Monitoring 
Project, which monitors homicides of transgender in-
dividuals, 2,343 transgender and gender-diverse peo-
ple were murdered between 2008 and 2016, in 69 
countries. 
(14) In many countries, intersex individuals ex-
perience prejudice and discrimination because their 
bodies do not conform to general expectations about 
sex and gender. Because of these expectations, medi-
cally unnecessary interventions are often performed 
in infancy without the consent or approval of 
intersex individuals, in violation of international 
human rights standards. 
(15) Asylum and refugee protection are critical 
last-resort protections for LGBTI individuals, but 
those who seek such protections face ostracization 
and abuse in refugee camps and detention facilities. 
They are frequently targeted for violence, including 
sexual assault, in refugee camps and in immigration 
detention. LGBTI individuals may be segregated 
against their will for long periods in solitary confine-
ment, in an effort to protect them from such vio-
lence, but prolonged solitary confinement itself rep-
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resents an additional form of abuse that is pro-
foundly damaging to the social and psychological 
well-being of any individual. 
(16) The one-year filing deadline to apply for 
United States asylum also disproportionately im-
pacts LGBTI individuals, as does the severe backlog 
in immigration cases that LGBTI individuals must 
endure. The lack of legal representation in asylum 
and refugee adjudication proceedings imposes an 
often insurmountable barrier to protection and dura-
ble resettlement. 
(17) In December 2011, President Barack 
Obama directed all Federal foreign affairs agencies 
to ensure that their diplomatic, humanitarian, health 
and foreign assistance programs take into account 
the needs of marginalized LGBTI communities and 
persons. 
(18) In 2015, the Department of State estab-
lished the position of Special Envoy for the Human 
Rights of LGBTI Persons. In 2017, the Trump Ad-
ministration indicated to Congress that it will retain 
this position, which as of the date of the enactment 
of this Act has still not been filled. 
(19) The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS 
Relief’s 2018 Annual Report to Congress states that 
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‘‘In order to reach epidemic control, we must ad-
dress the underlying social and cultural issues, espe-
cially unequal human rights and stigma and dis-
crimination, that prevent people from accessing HIV 
prevention and treatment services’’. 
(20) The use of United States diplomatic tools, 
including the Department of State’s exchange and 
speaker programs, to address the human rights 
needs of marginalized communities has helped in-
form public debates in many countries regarding the 
protective responsibilities of any democratic govern-
ment. 
(21) In 2016, the United Nations Human 
Rights Council passed a resolution cosponsored by 
the United States that established an independent 
expert on violence and discrimination based on sex-
ual orientation and gender identity to help monitor 
and track discrimination and violence experienced by 
LGBTI persons around the world. 
(22) According to the International Guidelines 
on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, as published by 
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
Rights, and according to the July 2017 report of the 
Independent Expert on protection against violence 
and discrimination based on sexual orientation and 
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gender identity, countries should review and reform 
criminal laws and correctional systems to ensure 
that they are consistent with international human 
rights obligations and are not misused or targeted 
against vulnerable groups. 
(23) Engaging multilateral fora and inter-
national institutions is critical to impacting global 
norms and to broadening global commitments to 
fairer standards for the treatment of all people, in-
cluding LGBTI. The United States must remain a 
leader in the United Nations system and has a vest-
ed interest in the success of that multilateral en-
gagement. 
(24) Ongoing United States leadership in the 
Equal Rights Coalition, which is a new intergovern-
mental coalition of more than 40 governments and 
leading civil society organizations that work together 
to protect the human rights of LGBTI people 
around the world, remains vital to international ef-
forts to respond to violence and impunity. 
(25) Those who represent the United States 
abroad, including our diplomats, development spe-
cialists and military, should reflect the diversity of 
our country and honor America’s call to equality, in-
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cluding through proud and open service abroad by 
LGBTI Americans and those living with HIV. 
SEC. 3. DOCUMENTING AND RESPONDING TO BIAS-MOTI-
VATED VIOLENCE AGAINST LGBTI PEOPLE 
ABROAD. 
(a) INFORMATION TO INCLUDE IN ANNUAL COUN-
TRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES.—The For-
eign Assistance Act of 1961 is amended— 
(1) in section 116(d) (22 U.S.C. 2151n(d))— 
(A) in paragraph (11)(C), by striking 
‘‘and’’ at the end; 
(B) in paragraph (12)(C)(ii), by striking 
the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 
and 
(C) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph: 
‘‘(13) wherever applicable, violence or discrimi-
nation that affects fundamental freedoms, including 
widespread or systematic violation of the freedoms of 
expression, association, or assembly of an individual 
in foreign countries that is based on actual or per-
ceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex 
characteristics.’’; and 
(2) in section 502B(b) (22 U.S.C. 2304(b)), by 
inserting after the ninth sentence the following new 
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sentence: ‘‘Wherever applicable, such report shall 
also include information regarding violence or dis-
crimination that affects the fundamental freedoms, 
including widespread or systematic violation of the 
freedoms of expression, association, or assembly of 
an individual in foreign countries that is based on 
actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender iden-
tity, or sex characteristics.’’. 
(b) REVIEW
AT
DIPLOMATIC
AND
CONSULAR 
POSTS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—In preparing the annual 
country reports on human rights practices required 
by section 116 or 502B of the Foreign Assistance 
Act of 1961, as amended by subsection (a), the Sec-
retary of State shall obtain information from each 
diplomatic and consular post with respect to the fol-
lowing: 
(A) Incidents of violence against LGBTI 
people in the country in which such post is lo-
cated. 
(B) An analysis of the factors enabling or 
aggravating such incidents, such as government 
policy, societal pressure, or external actors. 
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(C) The response, whether public or pri-
vate, of the personnel of such post with respect 
to such incidents. 
(2) ADDRESSING BIAS-MOTIVATED VIOLENCE.— 
The Secretary shall include in the annual strategic 
plans of the regional bureaus concrete diplomatic 
strategies, programs, and policies to address bias- 
motivated violence using information obtained pursu-
ant to paragraph (1), such as programs to build ca-
pacity among civil society or governmental entities to 
document, investigate, and prosecute instances of 
such violence and provide support to victims of such 
violence. 
(c) INTERAGENCY GROUP.— 
(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established an 
interagency group on responses to urgent threats to 
LGBTI people in foreign countries (in this sub-
section referred to as the ‘‘interagency group’’), that 
shall be chaired by the Secretary of State and in-
clude the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the 
Treasury, the Administrator of the United States 
Agency for International Development, the Attorney 
General, and the head of each other Federal depart-
ment or agency the President determines is relevant 
to the duties of the interagency group. 
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(2) DUTIES.—The duties of the interagency 
group shall be to— 
(A) coordinate the responses of each par-
ticipating agency with respect to threats di-
rected towards LGBTI populations in other 
countries; 
(B) develop longer-term approaches to pol-
icy developments and incidents negatively im-
pacting the LGBTI populations in specific 
countries; 
(C) advise the President on the designation 
of foreign persons for sanctions pursuant to 
section 4; 
(D) identify United States laws and poli-
cies, at the Federal, State, and local levels, that 
affirm the equality of LGBTI persons; and 
(E) use such identified laws and policies to 
develop diplomatic strategies to share the exper-
tise obtained from the implementation of such 
laws and policies with appropriate officials of 
countries where LGBTI persons do not enjoy 
equal protection under the law. 
(d) SPECIAL ENVOY FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF 
LGBTI PEOPLES.— 
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(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of State 
shall establish in the Bureau of Democracy, Human 
Rights, and Labor (DRL) of the Department of 
State a permanent Special Envoy for the Human 
Rights of LGBTI Peoples (in this section referred to 
as the ‘‘Special Envoy’’), who shall be appointed by 
the President. The Special Envoy shall report di-
rectly to the Assistant Secretary for DRL. 
(2) PURPOSE.—The Special Envoy shall direct 
efforts of the United States Government relating to 
United States foreign policy, as directed by the Sec-
retary, regarding human rights abuses against 
LGBTI people and communities internationally and 
the advancement of human rights for LGBTI people, 
and shall represent the United States internationally 
in bilateral and multilateral engagement on such 
matters. 
(3) DUTIES.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Special Envoy— 
(i) shall serve as the principal advisor 
to the Secretary of State regarding human 
rights for LGBTI people internationally; 
(ii) shall, notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, direct activities, policies, 
programs, and funding relating to the 
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human rights of LGBTI people and the 
advancement of LGBTI equality initiatives 
internationally, for all bureaus and offices 
of the Department of State and shall lead 
the coordination of relevant international 
programs for all other Federal agencies re-
lating to such matters; 
(iii) shall represent the United States 
in diplomatic matters relevant to the 
human rights of LGBTI people, including 
criminalization, discrimination, and vio-
lence against LGBTI people internation-
ally; 
(iv) shall direct, as appropriate, 
United States Government resources to re-
spond to needs for protection, integration, 
resettlement, and empowerment of LGBTI 
people in United States Government poli-
cies and international programs, including 
to prevent and respond to criminalization, 
discrimination, 
and 
violence 
against 
LGBTI people internationally; 
(v) shall design, support, and imple-
ment activities regarding support, edu-
cation, resettlement, and empowerment of 
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LGBTI people internationally, including 
for the prevention and response to crim-
inalization, discrimination, and violence 
against LGBTI people internationally; 
(vi) shall lead interagency coordina-
tion between the foreign policy priorities 
related to the human rights of LGBTI peo-
ple and the development assistance prior-
ities of the LGBTI Coordinator of the 
United States Agency for International 
Development; 
(vii) shall conduct regular consultation 
with nongovernmental organizations work-
ing to prevent and respond to criminaliza-
tion, discrimination, and violence against 
LGBTI people internationally; 
(viii) shall ensure that programs, 
projects, and activities of the Department 
of State and the United States Agency for 
International Development designed to pre-
vent and respond to criminalization, dis-
crimination, and violence against LGBTI 
people internationally are subject to rig-
orous monitoring and evaluation, and that 
there is a uniform set of indicators and 
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