The 410,000 member American Bar Association adopted a policy recognizing the rights of LGBT people world wide and condemning laws, regulations, rules and practices that discriminate against them and urging the US government to work to end such discrimination.
Meeting in Boston on August 11-12 the 560-member ABA House of Delegates voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 114B.
While there has been significant progress in such matters in the United States and elsewhere, some 76 countries still criminalize homosexuality, though some don’t enforce such laws. Still, in other countries the problem is worsening. For example, Nigeria earlier this year passed legislation for a 10-year prison sentence for homosexuality; and in April, Brunei became the eighth country to have capital punishment for gay sex acts.
Previously the ABA has passed resolutions endorsing marriage equality, opposing the use of "gay panic" and "trans panic" defenses in criminal cases, and calling for LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying policies.
Full text of the resolution is below the fold.
RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association recognizes that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have a human right to be free from discrimination, threats and violence based on their LGBT status and condemns all laws, regulations and rules or practices that discriminate on the basis that an individual is a LGBT person;
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges the governments of countries where such discriminatory laws, regulations, and practices exist to repeal them with all deliberate speed and ensure the safety and equal protection under the law of all LGBT people;
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges other bar associations and attorneys in jurisdictions where there are such discriminatory laws or incidents of targeting of LGBT people to work to defend victims of anti-LGBT discrimination or conduct, and to recognize and support their colleagues who take these cases as human rights advocates; and
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges the United States Government, through bilateral and multilateral channels, to work to end discrimination against LGBT people and to ensure that the rights of LGBT people receive equal protection under the law.