A shadow over democracy | The Hill

Recent attempts to erase and even criminalize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people Uganda It casts a shadow over all democracies, but especially those that have actively sought to silence the LGBTI community. A key principle of democracy is the representation of all citizens. If a country wishes to be recognized as a democracy, these rights must apply to all citizens without exception.

Few would agree with the extreme actions taken by Ugandan MPs against the LGBTI community.But other countries have professed democracy and are participating in upcoming conferences White House Summit for Democracy It also silenced the LGBTI community.

Zambia is the only country with a score of 7%. LGBTQI Human Rights Report Card (HRRC) is one of five countries to host regional meetings for the upcoming Summit. Four of her women were recently arrested in Zambia.champion homosexualityWhy should Zambia, with this record, be given the honor of hosting a democracy summit? I hope Vice President Harris raises this same question during his next visit.

Ghana, another country invited to the Democracy Summit and another country on the Vice President’s itinerary, announced a pending Anti-LGBTQI bill Criminalize gender identity and intersex remedial therapy and imprison individuals or groups found to be promoting LGBTQI+ identities. Ghana is one of her 11 countries to experience setbacks on her LGBTQI human rights report card.

report card created by F&M Global Barometer in cooperation with World Equality Council, which measures the extent to which countries provide legal protection to their LGBTQI+ citizens. Countries are scored on her three dimensions: basic rights, protection from violence, and socioeconomic rights.

Unfortunately, Ghana and Zambia are not in the minority.60% of invited nations failed him in 2022 LGBTQI+ Human Rights Report (HRRC). Only four countries received an ‘A’ or ‘Excellent’ score: Malta, Greece, Canada and Uruguay. Malaysia and Nigeria have an enviable difference with zero grades on the report card.

Legislation is not the only indicator of a country’s success in protecting its most vulnerable citizens. It also compares the realities of LGBTQI+ human rights living and legislative realities.

Based on a six-question survey launched in the summer of 2022, the F&M Global Barometer LGBTQI+ Perceptions Index (GBPI) measured the reality of human rights living around the world. The research focused on safety, acceptance, police harassment, violence, assembly safety, and discrimination. 167,000 responses reveal that the lived reality of LGBTQI+ people is different from the legislative reality.

For example, Ghana and the US scored an ‘F’ on the report card, while Ghana scored 34% on the GBPI and the US scored 70%. Malta scored 100% (A) but had a GBPI score of 79% (C).

However, Japan does not have specific laws to protect LGBTQI+ people from violence and socio-economic discrimination, which is why it scores higher on the GBPI (74%) than on the HRRC (30%). The 30% figure isn’t particularly high, but despite the lack of legal protection, her LGBTQI+ people in Japan believe their reality is better than being denied legal protection. This indicates that you are aware that

Comparing perceptions with legal reality shows that the health of a democracy goes hand in hand with how diligently a society protects its most vulnerable, including LGBTQI+ people.

The Democracy Summit provides an opportunity to send a strong message to countries actively persecuting LGBTI citizens that this behavior is undemocratic. Tolerance, acceptance and human decency are not Western values. They are human values, democratic values, and should be accepted by all.

Participating countries are expected to share democratic values ​​and norms and to embrace fundamental universal human rights principles. But many fail to do so, especially when it comes to protecting some of the most vulnerable citizens.

Susan Dicklitch-Nelson is Professor of Government Studies at Franklin & Marshall and founder and principal investigator of F&M Global Barometers. Mark Bromely is Co-Chair of the Council for Global Equality.