State Department deletes SOGIESC sections from the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
- Date
- Actor
- Department of State (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor)
- Agency
- Department of State (DOS)
- Type
- Data/communications
Summary
The 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released in August 2025, omit the longstanding subsection "Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics" from every country report — dropping documentation of, among others, Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act and Hungary's anti-LGBTQ laws. Plans for the deletion were reported in March 2025. The reports are used in asylum adjudications, including claims by transgender applicants, and by Congress in foreign-assistance decisions. Former special envoy Jessica Stern called the change "deliberate erasure"; the position of U.S. special envoy for LGBTQI+ rights has itself been left unfilled since January 20, 2025. (See also sections 7 and 12.)
Status
In effect; the Congressional Equality Caucus's September 2025 demand to restore the sections was not acted on.
As recorded in the data of . Check the sources for anything newer.
Sources
- lgbtqnation.com/2025/08/deliberate-erasure-state-department-removes-anti-lgbtq-…(opens another site)
- losangelesblade.com/2025/08/15/human-rights-report-lgbtq-people-erased(opens another site)
- washingtonblade.com/2025/03/24/report-state-department-to-remove-lgbtq-informat…(opens another site)
- washingtonblade.com/2025/08/08/report-state-department-to-remove-lgbtq-referenc…(opens another site)