United Nations Blasts U.S. Over Anti-LGBTQ Laws

metroweekly.com:

proliferation of anti-LGBTQ laws in various states that are seeking to roll back various freedoms and legal protections against discrimination.The UN National Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), which is required to review the human rights records of countries that approved the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, expressed concerns over a slew of anti-LGBTQ laws at the state level, writing in its conclusion that such statutes “severely restrict the rights of persons based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.”While the UNHRC is supposed to review the human rights records of signatories to the ICCPR every four years, the U.S.

review was postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning this year’s review is the first in nine years.The delay of that review also coincides with the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ laws, which started being passed in 2020 and spiked in subsequent years as part of a larger right-wing backlash to both government for COVID-era restrictions and the broader culture for its embrace of “wokeness.”The committee’s report highlighted 29 different “matters of concern,” regarding areas in which the United States continues to violate the freedoms espoused by the ICCPR.Among those is an increase in “discriminatory treatment” directed at members of the LGBTQ community, specifically citign laws that criminalize gender-affirming care, restrict transgender people’s ability to access certain facilities, and prohibit discussions of LGBTQ issues in schools.The report also expresses concern about the discrimination that LGBTQ people may face in their daily lives, particularly with regard to accessing housing, obtaining employment, their treatment while incarcerated in correctional facilities,.