‘Deliberate erasure’: State Department removes anti-LGBTQ+ abuses from annual human rights report

The Trump government has been lambasted for removing LGBTQ-specific references in the State Department’s global report on human rights, with the chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus saying it doesn’t just erase abuse but “condones it”.

The latest edition of the annual report, which the State Department released on Tuesday (12 August), covers the status of internationally recognised human rights and worker rights in countries receiving assistance from the US, and all United Nations member states.

It was published months late because, according to anonymous sources cited by Al Jazeera, Trump appointees worked to alter a previous draft to bring it in-line with the government’s so-called America First values, and reflect the various executive orders signed by Trump.

Upon publication it was quickly noted that the report is a stripped down version which eliminates references to human rights abuses experienced by members of the LGBTQ+ community, with sections from previous reports removed in their entirety.

Alongside this, it seemingly reduces criticism of US allies and increases criticism of supposed opponents.

Officials, however, say the new report is “streamlined” and was changed to “remove redundancies” and “increase readability”.

Within the report, it makes no reference Uganda’s abhorrent Anti-Homosexuality Law which immediately became one of the strictest pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the world when it was signed into law in 2023 by president Museveni – who previously declared that homosexuals are “deviants”.

The bill was passed to apparently “protect the sanctity of family” and doubled down on already cruel sanctions imposed on LGBTQ+ people in Uganda, whereby it still punishes homosexuality with imprisonment for up to life but also introduced the new offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’ which carries the death penalty.

Acts defined as ‘aggravated homosexuality’ include sexual activity with disabled people, those who are HIV positive and people aged 75 and over – with consent to the sexual act not constituting a defence to a charge.

Since the bill was brought into force, LGBTQ+ Ugandans have faced a huge increase in abuse, with violent beatings and arrests widely reported.

However, the report does make note of alleged acts of sexual violence committed by Ugandan government officials, citing ‘anal examinations’ which are used to determine if someone has engaged in homosexuality.

“Government officials reportedly committed acts of sexual violence,” the section of the report reads. “NGOs reported police medical staff subjected at least 15 persons to forced anal examinations following their arrests. Opposition protesters stated security forces used or threatened to use forced anal examinations during interrogations.”

Similarly, little to no reference is made in Russia’s section to the country’s widespread crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community.

In recent years, LGBTQ+ rights have been near totally eroded in Russia under its anti-LGBTQ+ “propaganda” law which saw the so-called “international LGBT movement” – which does not exist as an organisation – labelled as “extremist” by Putin’s government in 2023.

Ever since the propaganda law was put in place, it has seen various people arrested and businesses raided, including a man being fined for joking that he started the LGBTQ+ movement, queer bar staff and venue owners jailed, more than 50 club-goers detained at a club night, language-learning app Duolingo forced to remove its inclusive content, children’s cartoon My Little Pony being labelled 18+ and a gay student expelled from university for posting make-up videos.

Reports have also arisen of Russians being thrown into jail for being believed to be involved with the LGBTQ+ community, where they are then held in abhorrent conditions with some dying whilst in custody.

“During the year, authorities invoked a law prohibiting the distribution of “propaganda on nontraditional sexual relations” to children,” is all the report reads in reference to the propaganda law.

In a statement issued in response to the report, Californian Democrat Mark Takano – chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus – said: “Omitting the persecution of LGBTQI+ people from the Human Rights Reports doesn’t erase the abuse, violence, and criminalization our community is facing around the world—it condones it.

“Erasing our community from these reports makes it that much harder for human rights advocates, the press, and the American people to be aware of the abuses LGBTQI+ people are facing worldwide.

“Failing to rectify this censorship will have real, and potentially deadly, consequences for LGBTQI+ people, including both for those who travel abroad from the U.S. and for LGBTQI+ people in countries whose leadership no longer need to worry about consequences for their human rights abuses.

“The State Department must reverse course and restore the LGBTQI+ section to these reports.”

Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch called the report “an exercise of whitewashing and deception”.

“Entire categories of abuses have been erased, while serious rights violations by allied governments have been papered over,” Yager said.

“The State Department’s human rights report has long provided a strong, if too frequently ignored, basis for US support for the global human rights movement,” Yager said. “The Trump administration has now turned much of the report into a weapon that makes autocrats seem more palatable and minimizes the human rights abuses happening in those places.”

This year's Human Rights Report from the U.S. State Department reveals a disturbing effort by the Trump administration to purposefully fail to fully capture the alarming and growing attacks on human rights in certain countries around the globe.

— Amnesty International USA (@amnestyusa) August 12, 2025

On its official X account, Amnesty International described that the report “reveals a disturbing effort by the Trump administration to purposefully fail to fully capture the alarming and growing attacks on human rights in certain countries around the globe”.

Speaking to the BBC, Uzra Zeya – a former senior state department official who now runs the Human Rights First charity – accused Trump and his administration of “gutting” years of human rights work.

“It sends a signal that there’s going to be a free pass from the United States government, that it will look the other way if a government is willing to cut deals or do the bidding of this administration,” Zeya told the brodcaster.