By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 9 2025 – As the Trump administration continues its battle against the United Nations– over war crimes, human rights, and the climate treaty, among others — they also remain sharply divided over Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex. (LGBTI) rights.
The US has taken several actions, some by Executive Order, related to transgender people, including restricting Access to Gender-Affirming Care, banning Transgender Individuals from Military Service, rescinding Protections for Transgender Students and ending Federal Funding for gender Ideology.
But in contrast, the United Nations recognizes transgender people and their rights, affirming the human right of transgender individuals to legal recognition of their gender identity, including the right to change their gender on official documents like birth certificates.
The UN also works to protect transgender people from discrimination and violence, and advocates for their inclusion and equality.
As the campaign for a female UN secretary-general (UNSG) continues to accelerate, there was a proposal, circulating in the corridors of the UN last week, that a member state should be prompted to sponsor a token transgender candidate for UNSG.
Perhaps it may not be a political reality in the long run but it could well be a symbolical act of defiance against the Trump administration, one Asian diplomat told IPS.
Asked for her comments, Sanam Anderlini, founder and CEO of the International Civil Society Action Network, told IPS: “We don’t have time for symbolism or gimmicks or performative issues. The UN is a serious matter, needing serious experienced leadership”.
In principle, the sex of the candidates or a nominee should not matter. It should be about their experience. “But we have seen that for 80 years, member states have persisted in selecting men,” she pointed out.
So, they have made female representation an issue.
“As I said before, we need a woman — we have plenty of extraordinary potential candidates. If there is a qualified transgender candidate, perhaps they’d like to throw their hat in the ring.”
But to suggest that a transgender candidate should be named ‘symbolically’ is, I believe, a denigration of the trans community, the UN and women., she declared.
According to a report in Cable News Network (CNN) last week, June is “Pride Month”, when the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities celebrate the freedom to be themselves.
“Yet, those who identify as LGBTQ — especially transgender people — are still fighting battles for the right to exist without prejudice.”
Fearing reprisals from right-wing customers and the Trump administration, 39% of consumer brands are scaling back their Pride Month engagements this year.
President Trump has threatened to cut funding for California because one transgender high school athlete participated in the state’s track and field championships over the weekend.
The Education Department has ordered the University of Pennsylvania to ban transgender athletes from participating on women’s teams. The Pentagon is forcing transgender service members to leave the military and has banned them from enlisting.
And the Department of Health and Human Services has told health care providers to stop providing gender-affirming care for minors, said CNN
Meanwhile, the US-UN conflicts include US withdrawals from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Human Rights Council (HRC), and threats against the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA)—perhaps with more to come.
Dr James E. Jennings, President Conscience International, told IPS “tyrants, autocrats, and oligarchs are always the ones who want to take people’s rights away, preferring a stratified society with themselves on top to an egalitarian one”.
However, the founding documents of the United States proclaim the opposite–affirming liberty and justice for all and intended to promote the general welfare by protecting the individual rather than the state, he said.
“We are entitled to ask, “Which is it? Are human rights truly to be democratized or not?” If so, we can learn to manage our society equally by caring for each and every person in it”, he asked.
Even though issues of societal mores and human sexuality are difficult to put into a code of laws because attitudes and practices change over time, the law itself changes from generation to generation.
The principle of human freedom trumps Trump and his MAGA minions, declared Dr Jennings.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has taken several actions related to transgender people including:
- • Treatment of Transgender Individuals in Federal Prisons: Policies have been put in place to treat transgender individuals in federal prisons according to their sex assigned at birth, potentially leading to harmful housing arrangements.
• Elimination of Gender from Federal Websites: Information related to “gender ideology” has been removed from federal websites, and the term “gender” has been replaced with “sex” in some instances.
• Denial of Passport Gender Markers: Requests for passports with gender markers other than male or female, and requests to change gender markers between male and female, are being denied.
But many of these policies have faced legal challenges, according to published reports.
- • The Supreme Court has allowed the ban on transgender military service to take effect for now, but litigation is ongoing.
• The administration’s actions have drawn criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates who argue that they are discriminatory and harmful.
According to the UN, LGBTQI+ people are discriminated against in the labour market, in schools and in hospitals, mistreated and disowned by their own families. They are singled out for physical attack – beaten, sexually assaulted, tortured and killed.
Discrimination and hate-motivated violence against LGBTQI+ people is widespread, brutal, and often perpetrated with impunity, and it is even worse for those belonging to racialized communities. They are also victims of torture and ill treatment, including in custody, clinics and hospitals.
In some 77 countries, discriminatory laws criminalize private, consensual same-sex relationships – exposing individuals to the risk of arrest, prosecution, imprisonment — even, in at least five countries, the death penalty.
Since 2010, according to Outright International, transgender people in the United States have been able to change their gender markers on their passports.
In 2021, the US State Department aligned this policy with international best practices by removing requirements for physician certification to do so, and in 2022 it began offering the option of an “X” gender marker on passports for nonbinary people.
In reversing these policies, the Trump Administration undermines trans, nonbinary, and intersex people’s ability to have their gender identity recognized and respected, directly conflicting with the principles of self-determination and autonomy.
Requiring people to carry identity documents that do not reflect their gender expression also exposes them to an increased risk of violence and restricts their freedom of movement, a right protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The policy could pose an immediate risk to members of the armed services and other US government personnel who are currently deployed or working abroad on passports that reflect their gender identity, said Outright International.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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