People around the world face vlence and equaly—and sometim torture, even executn—bee of who they love, how they look, or who they are. Sexual orientatn and genr inty are tegral aspects of our selv and should never lead to discrimatn or abe. Human Rights Watch works for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr peopl' rights, and wh activists reprentg a multiplicy of inti and issu. We document and expose ab based on sexual orientatn and genr inty worldwi, cludg torture, killg and executns, arrts unr unjt laws, unequal treatment, censorship, medil ab, discrimatn health and jobs and hog, domtic vlence, ab agast children, and nial of fay rights and regnn. We advote for laws and polici that will protect everyone’s digny. We work for a world where all people n enjoy their rights fully.
Contents:
GAY REPARATNS ARE PAST DUE
Compared to s mocratic peers Wtern Europe, the Uned Stat is a gay reparatn laggard. Dpe the overwhelmgly posive prs the Uned Stat gets on s LGBT advanc, the ntrast wh Spa is strikg: although same-sex marriage fally arrived natnwi 2015 (imposed by the urts), many other areas of Amerin life, LGBT rights are eher weak or unr attack. At least when pared to the Spanish experience, the stggle for same-sex marriage the Uned Stat failed to engage the public to a larger bate about the history of homosexualy the untry and about the ntributns of LGBT people to society today. One price of the narrow marriage equaly victory has been to leave tact and largely unexamed the long history of anti-gay anim, discrimatn, and homophobia Amerin culture. * reparations for gay people *
In 2017, for stance, the UK issued posthumo pardons to thoands of gay and bisexual men nvicted of “gross cency” the past, cludg Alan Turg, the mathematician who famoly broke the Germans’ Enigma s durg the send world war. It may seem surprisg to Amerin rears, but one of the most vibrant human rights movements around the world today is “gay reparatns, ” or polici tend to make amends for the legacy of systemic discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn and genr inty. In still other untri, gay reparatns have centered on a pardon to anyone nvicted unr laws that crimalized same-sex attractn, as the Uned Kgdom, which 2017 issued a posthumo pardon to those nvicted of “gross cency, ” cludg Alan Turg, the mathematician creded wh shorteng the end of World War II; or even fancial pensatn for wag or pensns lost due to havg spent time prison or a mental stutn bee of a homosexual offense, as Spa sce 2009 and Germany sce 2016.
THE CASE FOR GAY REPARATN
The clost the untry has e to embracg gay reparatns was 2019, when, on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rts, the New York Police Department issued a belated apology for the raid that triggered the rebelln.
WHY GAY REPARATN’S TIME HAS COME
Surely, the absence of gay reparatns—or even a discsn of them— the Uned Stat is not out of a rosy history ee of systemic discrimatn toward the LGBTQ muny, although a valid argument n be ma that this history is not particularly well known, save, perhaps, for “don’t ask, don’t tell.