In her talk in San Francisco on May 27, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the following in response to a question about abuses of gay human rights abroad:

"And the United States issues something called a Human Rights Report every year that talks about the human rights conditions in each country and so -- very much in line with the notion that every citizen needs to be represented and rights protected. We believe that this is the way to handle this situation."

The State Department's latest annual human rights report was issued on February 28 and, after a few Google searches, does not seem to have generated any news coverage in either the gay or mainstream press. (Source: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/index.htm )

I looked at the reports for countries where I knew anti-gay activities had occurred and to my surprise, the reports were rather inclusive of the terrible bashings, governmental discrimination and detention, murders and other forms of harassment suffered last year by gays, lesbians, transgenders and people with AIDS. Who would expect the Bush administration to give a damn about the widespread abuse of gay human rights around the globe and to consider the abuses worthy of inclusion in a human rights report? Not me.

Now that we know the State Department's human rights report documents the discrimination gays face abroad, what steps should the department take to both prevent and prosecute the abuses our brothers and sister suffer? What is State doing about the reports of gay human rights abuses? Offering help to the victims and issuing condemnations? Maybe withholding foreign aid until gay human rights are protected by abusive governments?

One thing I'd like to see is press attention, perhaps tied to Rice's comments in San Francisco, as a way to keep pressure on the State Department to at least monitor the situations faced by gays around the globe.

Here, on my blog at http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com , are many excerpts from the 2004 human rights report that were of interest to me. It is not a comprehensive list of all the country reports that mentioned gay rights, but a large sampling of what's in the full report, which I hope will be read by more gay activists.

[ May 31, 2005, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: MPetrelis ]