MS STERN: Hello, everybody. (Cheers.) Can you hear me in the back?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
MS STERN: And can you hear me in the back? (Cheers.) All right, excellent. Well, Happy Pride. (Cheers and applause.) My name is Jessica Stern and I'm the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex persons. Welcome. (Cheers.) Yeah, you can applaud. (Applause.) Welcome, everyone, to the Secretary of State's Pride Reception. (Cheers.) I am delighted to see so many of you here. It never gets old celebrating LGBTQI+ rights in the Ben Franklin Room at the State Department. Am I right? (Cheers and applause.)
I want to start by giving my deepest appreciation to the Secretary of State's team for enabling this to happen. (Cheers.) You're here tonight because you know that LGBTQI+ people globally need full equality, and you know it is not yet a reality. The Secretary will speak shortly so I won't enumerate the successes and the setbacks, but what I will do is emphasize that while there have been successes, progress is also tenuous, and there is a global backlash against LGBTQI+ persons' safety and dignity everywhere in the world today. And that is why we continue the fight.
This is why it makes me so proud to tell you that today is a momentous day. We just held a conference here at the Department of State: U.S. Foreign Policy, National Security, Inclusive Development, and the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons. And yes, I said a conference was momentous. (Laughter.)
The President honored the convening by sending a message that now must become essential reading. He wrote, quote, "Protecting the rights and liberties of LGBTQI+ people strengthens democracy, enhances security, supports economic development, and protects public health both at home and overseas." Your commitment to the global LGBTQI community - yes, you, everyone in this room here tonight - is helping forge a future in which everyone, no matter who they are, who they love, or who they call home, can live with dignity.
Today was the first time in United States history that three cabinet officials - Secretary Blinken, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Ambassador Tai, the U.S. Trade Representative - explained why protecting the rights of LGBTQI+ persons is integral to U.S. national security and foreign policy more generally. Can we give that a round of applause? (Cheers and applause.)
We also heard from senior officials across the government, including the White House, USAID, and HHS, describe a whole-of-government approach to LGBTQI+ inclusion in U.S. foreign policy, including public health and development assistance. And today, we launched the annual Progress Report on the Implementation of the Presidential Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of LBGTQI+ Persons Around the World. It is succinct and it is readable. And yes, I just said a government report is readable. (Laughter.) Thank you to the wonks who are applauding the government report. (Laughter.) I see you; you're my people.
The report is going online now, so please read it and share it with a friend. I think it tells the story of why inclusive foreign policy matters. Each example from today shows that our commitment to creating an LGBTQI+-inclusive U.S. foreign policy matters and that the work is yielding tangible results in LGBTQI+ persons' daily lives.
So pivoting from that, I want to reflect on something fabulous that I got to do yesterday. Last night, I had the great pleasure of attending a Pride picnic on the South Lawn of the White House. Maybe some of you were there as well. (Cheers.) And I will say, in spite of the 100-degree heat - (laughter) - which we paid attention to, the crowd was jubilant. The stately columns of the White House were adorned in rainbow, and as we arrived, every attendee was handed a fan that simply said "White House Pride." As the speeches ended and the temperature cooled in the golden evening sun, I thought about how much it meant to me personally as a member of this community and to everyone who was there that it happened - not that the event was endured, not that it was tolerated or that we were tolerated, but that we were celebrated. Every LGBTQI+ person everywhere should be respected and valued by their family, their community, and their government. (Applause.)
I walked towards the exit hand in hand with my partner and my mom, and I took in the scene. And I saw two gay men walking hand in hand, dressed in button-down shirts and crisply ironed pants. I don't know how their pants were not wrinkled by the end of it, but that's another question. (Laughter.) But these men dared show that rare thing: love and affection between gay men in public. Headed towards the Metro were lesbian moms wearing sensible shoes - (laughter) - and cargo shorts. (Laughter.) Their kids wore rainbow suspenders and carried ice cream sandwiches. They showed that our children are loved and that LGBTQI+ parents and families deserve recognition. (Applause.)
And I saw the trans teens, one with pink hair and one with rainbow extensions, living their best life. (Laughter.) And they were feeling their beauty walking out of the White House, and I thought about the world they live in every day that maybe isn't so beautiful. And I wished that moment would go on forever.
Against so much fear and against a world in which the signal of truth can be lost in the noise of hostile fiction, I choose to focus on the work ahead of us and the people in this room and around the world in rooms maybe not as fancy but with as much heart who are determinedly, persistently pursuing progress. When the path feels uncertain, I find myself grounded in that which is knowable: We are here. We have always been here. And we are not going away. (Cheers and applause.)
It is now my great pleasure to welcome to the podium Secretary Blinken. Thank you all and Happy Pride. (Cheers and applause.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good evening, everyone.
AUDIENCE: Good evening.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: All right, welcome to the State Department. Welcome to the Ben Franklin Room, and Happy Pride to each and every one of you. (Cheers and applause.) Now, give it up for just one minute for our remarkable envoy, who you do not want to get between Jessica and any problem she's trying to solve. (Laughter.) I know that; the world increasingly knows that. (Cheers and applause.) To you and your team, thank you, thank you, thank you for the extraordinary leadership that you show every single day.
Jessica has a background, as you know, as an advocate, a human rights researcher, an NGO leader. But bringing all of that experience to bear and then assembling this remarkable team is what's making a difference around the world, and I want to talk a little bit about that in a couple of moments.
To everyone here tonight, to all of our friends, our colleagues from across the department, partners celebrating Pride with us, welcome, welcome, welcome. And I want to say a special thanks to the glifaa board and its members. This is a remarkable resource for employees across the U.S. foreign policy agencies, for their families, and for me, and I deeply value what you do every single day. Thank you. (Applause.)
This is a special evening. It's a special month, a time when we reaffirm our whole-of-government commitment to LGBTQI+ rights. But it's not just one month. It's not just one evening. It is 365 days a year, because it has to be. This has been a priority for President Biden from day one of this administration. You've heard Jessica talk about it, but on that first day he signed an executive order, and that executive order says this. It says that all human beings shall be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love.
Defending, promoting LGBTQI+ rights globally is the right thing to do, but beyond that, it's the smart and necessary thing to do for our country, for our national security, for our well-being. And why is that? It's pretty basic. If you look around the world and look at the countries that respect the rights of the LGBTQI+ community, they're more stable, they're healthier, they're more prosperous, they're more democratic. Those that don't are not. And that's a pretty basic thing, because a world of stable, healthy, prosperous, democratic countries is a world that's good for the United States. A world that features the opposite is not. And there is a direct correlation - a direct correlation - between countries that respect these rights and the health of their societies that we see every day.
Now, you heard Jessica say this as well. This work is increasingly urgent, because even as we've seen remarkable progress, we've also seen backsliding and backlashes in democracies and in non-democracies alike. Governments criminalizing same-sex conduct, same-sex status; denying equal rights; normalizing violence. So to us, to the President, it's been a vital part of our foreign policy, of our action around the world in every part of the world, to make sure that this department and this government are working to stand up for rights wherever they're challenged.
The convening that Jessica talked about today was the first-ever U.S. Government policy convening on our foreign policy and LGBTQI+ rights. We've made clear, and I think you heard that, those of you who participated today, that it matters to our work and it's a fundamental part of our work. We have advanced our efforts in advancing these rights around the world. You got a chance to hear, those of you who were there, from cabinet members, from senior officials across the department, from our partners, from other governments, from civil society, from Congress. And today was an important day also as a learning experience, an opportunity to listen and to learn from advocates and from so many of our colleagues.
What I hope is that people come away from today more energized, more coordinated, more prepared to take on this challenge than they were just yesterday.
Now, you all know better than anyone: Change doesn't happen automatically. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes incredible effort. And for all the road that's been traveled, there's a long road that's ahead. But I also hope that we're inspired by the progress that we've seen and we're energized by it. Seven nations decriminalized same-sex conduct over the last two years. Greece, Lichtenstein, Thailand voted for marriage equality this year. (Cheers and applause.) The United States led the way at the Human Rights Council on a resolution protecting intersex persons. (Applause.) Each one of these steps - each one of these steps - builds on the other. And you take one step and you may not notice, but then after a while you begin to see those steps building on each other - you've actually traveled somewhere, you've gotten somewhere, you're moving forward. And we will - we will - continue to move forward.
Now, all of this progress is made possible because of some truly extraordinary people: human rights defenders, local leaders, international partners - and a number of you are here today - and I'm proud to say leadership from the United States. When we engage, when we share knowledge, when we actually lead, we know this: We can move the needle. And I've seen that in action all over the world, and I've seen that in action thanks to Jessica and her team.
Just a short while ago, I met with one of my counterparts and the president of a country that was criminalizing homosexuality. And one of the things that we talked about in that meeting besides the various issues on our bilateral agenda were the deep concerns that the United States had, including about a sodomy law that was on the books. Months of work preceded that meeting. The ambassador, our senior officials across the government, had raised this concern in the country in question; they'd raised it here in Washington. The community on the ground profoundly informed our work. And ultimately, the law that was on the verge of being implemented, the president agreed not to implement. He acknowledged it was outdated, he acknowledged it didn't serve his country, and he sent a nationwide directive out not to apply the law.
That is American diplomacy in action. That is just one example of with a concerted effort, over time, across our government, across this department, we can move the needle. And we're determined to keep doing that. (Applause.)
But here's what I just want to emphasize to all of you. As much as we can do, as much as we will do, we simply can't do it alone. It's only when we're working together, when we're working with civil society, with foreign partners, with the private sector, with all of the stakeholders on a given issue, that we can really, really make a difference.
And so that's why I'm so pleased to have so many of you here tonight, because as I'm looking out at this room I see so many people who are our partners in this mission, in this endeavor, and I say to you tonight thank you, thank you, thank you for the partnership. We're committed to it. We're determined. But it's your work, it's your determination, it's your courage, it's your resilience, it's your persistence that will make all the difference.
So I hope that you celebrate tonight, but after you celebrate, after we have this one day, this one evening of celebration, let's make sure the next 364 days are days where together we are working to advance the rights of people all over the world. Thank you so much for being here. Happy Pride. Thank you. (Applause.)
