Global: Widespread Pattern of Abuses Against LGBT People Worldwide

The US Department of State’s 2011 Human Rights Report catalogues an ongoing range of abuses and discriminatory treatment directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people worldwide – starkly underscoring what Secretary Hillary Clinton has called '…one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time.' Speaking in Geneva last December, Secretary Clinton noted that, too often, LGBT people remain an 'invisible minority', members of which '…are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed…' while '…authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse.'