Likely to cause friction in India.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey is the man behind a new piece of legislation that would call on all foreign nations to extend more rights and protections to Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) citizens.
The bill, entitled the International Human Rights Defense Act, already has two dozen signatories, including Markey’s colleague, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Markey and Warren, both Democrats, are among those leading the charge on Capitol Hill for reformed laws regarding the LGBT community, and are hoping to instill the same tolerance for non-heterosexual individuals abroad, as well.
“For the United States to hold true to our commitment to defending the human rights of all people around the world, we must stand with the LGBT community in their struggle for recognition and equality everywhere,” Markey said in a statement Friday. “The International Human Rights Defense Act will foster a coordinated effort across the federal government and relevant agencies so we can meet the enormous challenge before us and work to ensure equality for all people around the globe.”
However, the legislation could make things awkward between the US and India, which has come under criticism from other nations ever since its Supreme Court upheld a law that made any display of homosexual or otherwise deviant sexual behavior in the country illegal. Complicating things even more is that earlier this year, India passed a law recognizing hijras, or transponders, as a third gender while still looking down at the rest of the country’s LGBT citizens. There are roughly three million Indian citizens who identify themselves as transgender, according to voter registration info.
If the bill is passed, it will create special US envoys that travel to different countries espousing why it’s important to recognize the rights of the LGBT community. It would also require that the US Senate “devise a global strategy” that would target countries which persecute LGBT citizens and work to mitigate violence and discrimination against such individuals.
“More than 80 nations around the world have laws that criminalize homosexuality, prohibit public support for the LGBT community, or promote homophobia. For the US to hold true to our commitment to defending the human rights of all people around the world, we must stand with the LGBT community in their struggle for recognition and equality everywhere,” Markey said, in a tweet.
Before the bill can go into effect, it would need to be passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, both of which have a history of not getting along of late. It would then need to be signed into law by President Barack Obama, but that would be less of a hurdle, as Obama has long been a supporter of LGBT rights.