The following comes from an April 9 story in the homosexual paper, the Washington Blade.

The U.S. Agency for International Development on Monday unveiled a public-private partnership designed to promote LGBT rights around the world.

USAID will work with the Swedish International Development Corporation Agency, the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law and Olivia Companies on the LGBT Global Development Partnership that will contribute $11 million over the next four years to advocacy groups in Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala and other developing countries. The Gill Foundation and the Levi Strauss Foundation will also participate in the initiative that seeks to expand the capacity of local LGBT rights organizations, further engage out people in their respective countries’ political processes and gather information on the impact of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

“This partnership leverages the financial resources and skills of each partner to further inclusive development and increase respect for the human rights of LGBT people around the world,” Claire Lucas, senior advisor of the USAID Office of Innovation and Development Alliances during a panel at the Ronald Reagan Building in D.C. “It can be a real game-changer in the advancement of LGBT human rights.”

Anne-Charlotte Malm of the Swedish International Development Corporation Agency echoed Lucas.

“We all, by being here today, share the common vision of a society without discrimination or harassment and equal rights and opportunities for everybody regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression,” she said. “This partnership is a step towards this tradition.”

More than 80 countries and territories continue to criminalize homosexuality — and seven of them impose the death penalty upon anyone found guilty of same-sex sexual relations.

Only 19 countries ban anti-transgender discrimination — the State Department has spoken out against anti-LGBT violence in Honduras, Jamaica, Uganda, Zimbabwe and other nations in recent years.

Argentina, Canada, Spain and South Africa are among the dozen countries that currently allow same-sex marriage.

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 proclaimed in a speech she delivered in Geneva to commemorate International Human Rights Day that “gay rights are human rights.” President Obama on the same day directed government agencies that implement American foreign policy to promote LGBT rights in the countries in which they work.

The planning for the partnership was already underway when the White House issued its directive, but Lucas said it “really helped us push this over the finish line.”

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