US is undermining LGBTQ+ rights worldwide, new report claims

A new human rights report has claimed the US is undermining LGBTQ+ and wider human rights across the world, with the second Trump administration marked by a “blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations”.

The report from Human Rights Watch, entitled World Report 2026, examines the state of human rights in countries across the globe, with a focus on key events that happened throughout 2025.

“The global human rights system is in peril,” Philippe Bolopion, executive director at Human Rights Watch, said in the introduction to the report.

“Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.”

Bolopion went on to say 2025 “may be seen as a tipping point” for human rights.

“In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish,” he wrote.

“In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.”

Bolopion outlined how the Trump administration has “embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology”, whilst the US has left dozens of international organisations and has also culled US aid programmes, including those which support children, women and LGBTQ+ people.

In the specific US section of the report, Human Rights Watch states the Trump’s second administration has “been marked from the start by blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations”, adding the nation took significant steps backward on various issues including immigration, health, environment, disability, gender and freedom of speech.

It outlined how in many parts of the US, officials at all levels of government continue to target LGBTQ+ people, with the administration particularly having escalated attacks on transgender communities.

Following his return to the White House, Trump has signed several executive orders seeking to remove the rights of trans people.

These orders have included proclaiming the official policy of the US is that there are “only two sexes”, banning transgender people from serving in the military, restricting gender-affirming healthcare for trans youngsters under the age 19 and barring trans women and girls from female sports.

Trump has also moved to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes across the government and in the military. This move, coupled by campaigning by anti-woke MAGA activist Robby Starbuck, has seen several big name US businesses – including Walmart, Target, Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s – drop their DEI policies, programmes and targets.

As the report outlines: “Twenty-seven states now ban medically indicated gender-affirming care for youth, and several impose criminal penalties on providers. In June, the Supreme Court upheld these bans, which have a devastating impact on young peoples’ health and well-being. Eight states require school staff to disclose students’ gender identity to parents and twenty states restrict bathroom access for transgender people in schools. Nineteen states restrict classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Less than half of US states prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Congress has failed to enact comprehensive federal protections for LGBT people in education, housing, public accommodations, and federally funded programs.”

In his introduction, Bolopion mused who will defend human rights in the face of the US “undermining the global human rights system”.

“Despite rhetorical flourishes, many governments treat rights and the rule of law as a hindrance, rather than a benefit, to security and economic growth,” the executive said.

“The European Union, Canada, and Australia appear to hold back out of fear of antagonizing the US and China. Others are weakened by the way political parties displaying illiberal tendencies have skewed their domestic politics and discourse away from a rights-respecting approach. In many parts of Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, many voters gladly accept limits on the rights of “others,” whether immigrants, women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBT people, or other marginalized communities.

“But as history shows, would-be autocrats never stop at ‘others’.”