On July 11, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio carried out his State Department overhaul plan by laying off more than 1,300 career public servants. Though the details remain unclear, the cuts appear to have targeted nearly every employee working on human rights, democracy, or global systems of justice—including almost all of the few people at the department who possessed the expertise to respond to threats against LGBTQ individuals worldwide.
Then, last week, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration officially terminated the 988 suicide prevention hotline that caters to LGBTQ youth, and the U.S. Congress voted to cut $9 billion from foreign aid (and public broadcasting). These recent moves reflect a sobering truth: The United States is no longer playing a leading role in the fight for LGBTQ equality, globally or domestically. Instead, Washington is retreating and increasingly playing a central role in the backlash against LGBTQ people.
As political appointees under former U.S. President Joe Biden, we led LGBTQ foreign policy at the State Department; our former office has since been dismantled during Trump’s second term. While in our government roles, we saw firsthand how U.S. leadership on these issues could profoundly improve the safety of LGBTQ people worldwide—and, in turn, protect U.S. interests by safeguarding human rights and reducing the risk of economic and political instability.
We worked closely with U.S. embassies to confront rising anti-LGBTQ violence that posed a threat to Americans and U.S. national security. We documented governmental and nongovernmental abuses against LGBTQ people. And we worked with U.S. officials across agencies to support allies around the world working to reduce HIV transmission, prevent workplace discrimination, and decrease violence against minorities, including LGBTQ people.
This leadership has made a meaningful difference. When U.S. officials expressed deep concern about a sodomy law in a series of meetings with leaders of a Central Asian country, the country’s government pledged not to enforce it. When a trans woman was found dead under suspicious circumstances in the Pacific region, the local LGBTQ community feared it was a hate crime; we elevated the community’s concerns by meeting local officials who then committed to investigate her death as part of a broader effort to counter gender-based violence against marginalized groups.
Dedicated diplomacy also created opportunities to work directly with law enforcement leaders, including in the Dominican Republic, and generate support for addressing abusive treatment of LGBTQ people.
This collaborative approach made clear that support for LGBTQ rights is not a stand-alone issue. Societies that respect the rights and dignity of all people are more stable, more prosperous, and more secure. In contrast, countries that marginalize LGBTQ people or any minority tend to grapple with social unrest, weaker institutions, and slower development.
However, around the world, the approach that links global safety and prosperity to the protection of the rights and dignity of all people is now under threat. In recent years, a globally networked movement to oppose LGBTQ rights—along with women’s rights, sex education, and protection against all forms of discrimination and violence—has gained momentum.
From organizing at the United Nations and other multilateral settings to oppose legal protection for LGBTQ people to international conferences providing training for attacking LGBTQ rights, this growing movement has dovetailed with a rise in authoritarian leaders who scapegoat LGBTQ people to distract from economic and other challenges in their countries.
With support from this movement, countries have criminalized same-sex relationships or lengthened prison sentences for consensual same-sex relationships. Others have banned LGBTQ organizations, outlawed Pride events, and required allies to report LGBTQ people in certain circumstances. This backlash is coordinated, ideological, and well-funded, including by U.S.-based organizations and Russian actors. And instead of resisting it, Washington is now helping lead it.
In a departure from his first term, when Trump pledged to stand in solidarity with LGBTQ people, since taking office in January the president has increasingly treated LGBTQ issues—especially trans issues—as a successful strategy for energizing his base. In addition to eliminating foreign assistance programs designed specifically to protect and support vulnerable groups, including LGBTQ people, the Trump administration has moved quickly to end U.S. support for LGBTQ rights at the United Nations and Organization of American States.
Backed by some Republican leaders in Congress, the Trump administration has embraced this destabilizing trend as a core foreign-policy objective. Trump opened his presidency with an executive order attacking transgender people, including their right to full participation in American society, and directing federal agencies to deny their existence. As a result, the State Department now requires passports to identify transgender men as female and transgender women as male, which is both inaccurate and dehumanizing. (A federal district court has put this change on a temporary hold while a lawsuit proceeds against it.)
U.S. officials have politically targeted even small funding allocations. A grant to support LGBTQ Ugandans who face dire threats from their government, for example, was mischaracterized by Rep. Brian Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as an example of how “many of the programs in USAID [the U.S. Agency for International Development] have literally betrayed America.”
In reality, even at its peak, just 0.1 percent of USAID’s global $21.7 billion budget supported funding for LGBTQ communities in 2024. But knock-on effects still follow: Cutting off funds to support LGBTQ people in South Africa, for example, also reduces access to health care that stems the spread of border-crossing diseases such as HIV/AIDS and mpox.
One organization, Outright International, was directed by “stop work” orders from the State Department and USAID to cut grants to 120 organizations across 42 countries that translated to ending funding for LGBTQ veterans’ medical support in Ukraine, an LGBTQ domestic violence shelter in Malawi, and legal services for victims of torture in Myanmar.
Pulling funding from vulnerable groups creates further geopolitical and national security risks for the United States. When a government targets LGBTQ people or other minorities for harm, as in Ghana, Hungary, Peru, Russia, and elsewhere, risks of instability rise. If officials know that they can shake down minorities without fear of punishment, corruption spreads, which can make space for organized crime, violent extremism, and terrorism.
We’ve already seen the cost of this retreat. An East African LGBTQ rights leader, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, told us last month, “When the U.S. stands with us, our governments think twice. When it stays silent, they take that as permission to crack down on all minorities.”
A recent online hate campaign targeted Kenyan LGBTQ organizations and their allies. Because the campaign publicized the organizations’ addresses, they feared that their staff would be violently attacked. The United States should have helped lead the diplomatic community’s crisis response—providing funds, political support, and recognition to help prevent violence against LGBTQ people and human rights defenders. Instead, our government was missing in action.
Similarly, in March, when Hungary banned all Pride events, an extraordinary restriction on fundamental rights like freedoms of expression and assembly, the only public response from the United States was a terse travel advisory from the U.S. Embassy in Budapest.
Policymakers across the aisle need to recognize the importance of Washington supporting LGBTQ rights abroad for at least three reasons. First, doing so honors fundamental American values: the pursuit of freedom, equality of opportunity, and dignity for all. The United States is respected not for perfection, but for progress. When we, as a government and nation, acknowledge our challenges and strive for inclusion, we become a beacon to others who dream of change in their own countries.
Second, LGBTQ rights are being exploited by those who seek to dismantle broader democratic institutions, as when opponents use small grants to LGBTQ groups to justify dismantling USAID. When these rights become political kryptonite, entire policies and agencies—no matter how popular or effective—can be destroyed by association.
Third, equality is a cornerstone of global stability. The rule of law cannot function selectively. When governments treat people unequally, they undermine safety, economic growth, and peace. When rights are protected, all of society benefits. To those who see LGBTQ issues as peripheral, the evidence says otherwise. Human rights are not a distraction from U.S. interests; they are essential to them.
As former public servants, we urge today’s leaders to stop the backslide. Do not let LGBTQ rights become the scapegoat for dismantling the human rights and foreign assistance cornerstones of U.S. foreign-policy infrastructure. Reinvest in the programs that have worked for decades. Restore the offices that were eliminated. Increase political and financial contributions to global justice. Speak clearly and consistently against hate.
Show the world that the United States still believes in dignity, respect, and equality for all.