U.S. State Department Scraps Draft of Human Rights Report on Anti-LGBTQ+ Aggression
The Trump administration's annual human rights report, released in August 2025, covering the year 2024, has significantly omitted references to violence against LGBTQ+ people and gender-based violence.
In a departure from previous editions, several categories of rights violations that were standard in past reports have been excluded, including those concerning women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and gender-based violence. This omission has been criticised as a form of political spin and whitewashing that undermines the credibility of the report and weakens protections for vulnerable groups.
Human Rights Watch has noted that entire categories of abuses related to women and LGBTQ+ people have been erased. The administration's approach has been described as minimising or mischaracterising serious human rights violations, especially in countries where the US is seeking friendly relations. This has diluted the report's traditional role as a strong basis for supporting global human rights.
Additionally, the report was scaled down overall, with country sections cut by dozens of pages and statistical data minimised. State Department officials framed this as an effort to make the report more accessible and useful, but critics argue these changes reflect political decisions to erase or weaken important categories of human rights abuses.
The removal of references to violence against LGBTQ+ people and gender-based violence has continued on other international stages. In at least six speeches before the United Nations, U.S. delegates have condemned what it calls "gender ideology," and pushed the Trump administration's support for recognising so-called "biological sex."
The Trump administration's erasure of LGBTQ+ people and gender-based violence has been decried by human rights advocates. In June 2024, a man in Volgograd, Russia was found guilty of "displaying the symbols of an extremist organisation" after posting a photo of the LGBTQ pride flag on social media. In the same month, a woman near Moscow was sentenced to five days detention for wearing frog-shaped earrings that were rainbow coloured.
The drafts of the reports for El Salvador and Russia were marked "finalized," and the draft for Israel was marked "quality check." However, the downplaying or exclusion of key issues, such as discrimination and attacks on civil society, from this year's report will hinder efforts from governments and civil society organisations around the world to respond to these abuses.
The Trump administration's instructions were to cut everything not legislatively mandated, but the leaked documents appear to show an effort to narrow the scope of what the world hears about human rights abuses around the world. The State Department did not immediately respond to HuffPost's request for comment on the changes made to the draft report.
References: [1] Human Rights Watch. (2025). Trump Administration's Human Rights Report Whitewashes Abuses. [online] Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/08/01/trump-administration-s-human-rights-report-whitewashes-abuses
[2] The Guardian. (2025). Trump administration accused of whitewashing human rights report. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/01/trump-administration-accused-of-whitewashing-human-rights-report
- The Trump administration's decision to omit references to violence against LGBTQ+ people and gender-based violence in the annual human rights report is part of a broader politics strategy that critics view as a form of policy-and-legislation manipulation, weakening protections for vulnerable groups and undermining the report's credibility.
- The erasure of LGBTQ+ people and gender-based violence from the annual human rights report is not limited to domestic policies, as the Trump administration has also been criticized for promoting such omissions in international politics and general-news stages, including speeches before the United Nations.
