U.S. Secretary of State and former Mass. State Sen. John Kerry is set to appoint a special envoy for LGBT rights around the world. The appointee, who will be a current openly gay U.S. State Department officer, will be named later this month after vetting candidates.
The appointment will expedite the substance of a bill sponsored by Mass. Sen. Edward J. Markey and N.Y. Rep. Alan S. Lowenthal that was killed in the last session of Congress.
According to a February 5 Boston Globe report:
“If enacted, Markey’s bill would have established the envoy under the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Labor and Human Rights to direct the federal government’s responses to international human rights abuses against LGBT people. The envoy would have also represented the federal government in international discussions of LGBT rights.
Markey hailed Kerry’s action in a statement, saying the envoy ‘will be a global model for defending LGBT rights around the world.’
The new job will be an extension of State Department’s recent initiatives to enhance and discuss LGBT rights both at home and abroad. The U.S. in August 2013 began issuing immigrant visas to same-sex couples in August, released the first Department statement to commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance that November, and condemned Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill in February 2014.”
