First lady Jill Biden on Monday headlined an LGBTQ and intersex rights event that took place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

“Our humanity — that simple fact — guarantees us certain rights,” said Biden in her speech at the U.N. LGBTI Core Group event. “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you were born, or who your parents are: Being human is enough.”

The European Union and more than three dozen countries are members of the Core Group, a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights. 

The Netherlands and Argentina, which currently co-chair the Core Group, and Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, organized the event. Jessica Stern, the special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights, introduced the first lady.

Biden in her remarks referenced O’Shae Sibley, a gay man who was stabbed to death in July 2023 while vogueing at a Brooklyn, N.Y., gas station.

She noted the Human Rights Campaign last year “declared a ‘state of emergency’ for LGBTQI people in America, because states across our country passed an unprecedented number of discriminatory laws.” Biden also said consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in more than 60 countries around the world.
 
“We’re not going to stand for hate, discrimination, and violence in our own country,” she said. “We won’t stand for it anywhere in the world.”

Biden noted “more countries” in recent years — Singapore, the Cook Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and Barbados, among others — have decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations. Biden also highlighted other countries — Greece, Liechtenstein, Estonia, Cuba, and Chile, among others — in recent years have extended marriage rights to same-sex couples. 

“These are big victories — ones that bloom across history,” she said.

“But our triumphs live in the small moments too — moments that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago: Walking down the street without fear. Co-workers who use your chosen name and pronouns. Kids with two moms or two dads at the playground. Coming together for LGBTQI rights during the United Nations General Assembly,” added Biden.

The promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad has been a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris administration’s overall foreign policy.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2016 spoke at a Core Group event that took place on the sidelines of that year’s U.N. General Assembly. He described the LGBTQ and intersex rights movement as the “civil rights issue of our time.”

“Discrimination against anyone for their sexual orientation and gender is anathema to most basic values,” said Joe Biden.  

Other participants in Monday’s event include:

• Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp

• Ricardo Lagorio, Argentina’s permanent representative to the U.N.

• Graeme Reid, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ and intersex issues

• U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk

• Former Finnish President Tarja Halonen

• Deputy Luxembourgish Prime Minister Xavier Bettel

• Chilean Social Development and Family Minister Javiera Toro Cáceres

• European Union External Action Service Secretary General Stefano Sannino

• Colombian Multilateral Affairs Vice Minister Kandya Obezo

• French LGBT+ Rights Ambassador-at-Large Jean-Marc Berthon

• Vanessa Dolce de Faria, the high representative for gender issues in the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry

• Philippe Kridelka, Belgium’s permanent representative to the U.N.

• Vanessa Frazier, Malta’s permanent representative to the U.N.

• David Sigurdsson, director of U.N. Affairs in the Icelandic Foreign Affairs Ministry

• Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin

• Ugandan activist Gloriah Dhel

• Filipina activist Venus Aves

The U.N. human rights chief and UNAIDS’s executive director have reiterated their calls for countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations.

“Laws criminalizing LGBTQ+ people must be consigned to history,” said Volker Türk and Winnie Byanyima in a statement they released on July 19.

The 25th International AIDS Conference began in Munich on Monday.

The statement notes Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Gabon, India, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Palau, St. Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Singapore, and Trinidad and Tobago over the last decade have repealed laws that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations.

The Namibian High Court on June 21 struck down the country’s Apartheid-era sodomy laws. 

Dominica’s High Court of Justice in April ruled provisions of the country’s Sexual Offenses Act that criminalized anal sex and “gross indecency” were unconstitutional. Justice Kimberly Cenac-Phulgence in the decision said “the laws commonly known as buggery and gross indecency laws, contravenes the constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica, namely the right to liberty, freedom of expression, and protection of personal privacy.”

Burkina Faso’s military government earlier this month said it plans to criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations in the country. Ugandan activists continue to challenge their country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act.  

Activists maintain criminalization laws harm people with HIV/AIDS, among other groups. Türk and Byanyima in their statement say these statutes “harm public health.”

“Criminalization of LGBTQ+ people generates justified fear amongst people who need access to health services, and amongst the frontline workers who provide those services,” they said.

“In criminalizing countries, there is decreased provision and uptake of HIV prevention services, and decreased uptake of HIV care and treatment services,” added Türk and Byanyima.

They conclude the “decriminalization of LGBTQ+ people is vital for protecting everyone’s human rights and everyone’s health.”

UNITED NATIONS — U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Tuesday at her annual Pride Month reception at the U.N. criticized those in the U.S. and elsewhere who continue to crackdown on LGBTQ and intersex rights.

Thomas-Greenfield noted in the U.S. “a small, but threatening group of people continues to garget the LGBTI+ community, and especially trans individuals.” She specifically pointed out the increase of hate crimes in schools, especially in states with laws that target LGBTQ students. 

Thomas-Greenfield described Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act — which contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality” — as “draconian.” She also cited the case of a Russian woman who authorities jailed because she wore rainbow earrings.   

“Despite these challenges, the LGBTI+ community has shown remarkable bravery and resilience,” said Thomas-Greenfield. 

Lawmakers in Greece, Estonia and Thailand since Thomas-Greenfield hosted her 2023 Pride Month reception extended marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs and French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who are both gay, took office in July 2023 and in January 2024 respectively.

Dominica’s High Court of Justice in April struck down provisions of a law that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations. German lawmakers the same month approved a statute that will make it easier for transgender and nonbinary people to legally change their name and gender.

The U.N. has faced criticism over its response to Hamas’s surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7. The Washington Blade, which attended Tuesday’s reception, saw at least one person wearing a keffiyah, a symbol of Palestinian solidarity.

“Since day one, the Biden administration has made it a priority to prevent and combat discrimination, hatred and violence on the basis of sexual orientation, and gender identity,” said Thomas-Greenfield. “I’m proud of the many, many ways … that U.S. U.N. has led on this front.”

Thomas-Greenfield in 2023 chaired a meeting that examined ways the U.N. Security Council can integrate LGBTQ and intersex rights into its work. 

The U.S. is among the dozens of countries that are members of the LGBTI Core Group, a group of U.N. countries that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights.

Thomas-Greenfield on Tuesday noted the U.S. continues to work with the U.N. Economic and Social Council to include LGBTQ-specific language in resolutions that focus on elections and democracy. She also referenced the group of activists who gathered in Dag Hammerskjöld Plaza, which is across the street from the U.N., in April 1965 to “protest the treatment of gay individuals at home and abroad.”

“We’re following in the footsteps of those marchers outside in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza all those years ago,” she said.

Jessica Stern, the special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad, also spoke at the reception. The New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and the West Point Benny Havens Band performed.