HR6151-119

What This Bill Does

The Global Respect Act creates a human-rights accountability framework for abuses against people based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics. It requires the President, within 180 days after enactment and biannually afterward, to transmit to Congress a list of foreign persons responsible for or complicit in torture, cruel or degrading treatment, prolonged detention without charges and trial, disappearance by abduction and clandestine detention, or other flagrant denial of life, liberty, or security of LGBTQI people, as well as agents acting for such persons. The list is generally unclassified and published in the Federal Register, with a classified annex permitted only with national-security justification to congressional committees. Listed foreign persons are inadmissible to the United States, ineligible for visas or other entry documents, ineligible for admission, parole, or other immigration benefits, and subject to immediate visa revocation. The President must update the list as new information becomes available, report before removals, issue public guidance through diplomatic and consular posts for submitting names to State, and respond within 120 days to committee chairs or ranking members who ask whether a foreign person meets listing criteria. The bill also requires the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor to designate senior officers to track violence, criminalization, and restrictions on freedoms abroad based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics, and amends human rights reports to include that information where applicable.

Who Benefits and How

LGBTQI individuals in countries with criminalization or persecution benefit from U.S. public identification and immigration consequences for serious abusers. Human rights nongovernmental organizations benefit from public guidance for submitting names to the State Department for evaluation. Congressional foreign affairs committees benefit from biannual lists, classified-annex justifications, removal reports, and 120-day responses to member requests. State Department human rights officers benefit from a statutory mandate to track anti-LGBTQI violence and restrictions in foreign countries. U.S. asylum and protection policy benefits from exceptions for covered individuals with reasonable fear of persecution.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Foreign persons responsible for serious abuses against LGBTQI people face inadmissibility, visa ineligibility, immediate visa revocation, and public identification. The President, State Department, and DHS must evaluate credible information, maintain lists, process updates and removals, and administer immigration consequences. Consular officers must revoke visas and deny entry documentation for listed foreign persons. State Department human rights reporting staff must add SOGI and sex-characteristics violence and discrimination information to applicable reports. Foreign governments and officials implicated in anti-LGBTQI abuses face heightened U.S. scrutiny and reputational cost.

Key Provisions

• Requires a biannual presidential list of foreign persons responsible for serious abuses against LGBTQI people.
• Requires inadmissibility, visa ineligibility, and immediate visa revocation for listed foreign persons.
• Requires public guidance for submitting names to the State Department for evaluation.
• Requires congressional notification and justification for classified annexes and removals from the list.
• Requires State Department officers to track anti-LGBTQI violence, criminalization, and restrictions abroad.
• Amends human rights reports to include violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics.