<p style=text-align: center;><strong>LGBTQI Catholics and Allies Celebrate Major Victory as Secretary of State Blinken Rejects Pompeo Commission</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: transparent; font-size: 13.008px;>DignityUSA the organization of Catholics committed to justice equality and full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in our church and society joins human rights advocates across the country in celebrating the news that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has rejected foreign policy recommendations outlined by the Commission on Unalienable Rights established under the Trump DignityUSAistration. The Commission a project begun during former Secretary Michael Pomeos tenure as head of the State Department promoted a narrow vision of religious liberty as a guiding principle of American foreign policy at the expense of LGBTQI inclusion and womens rights and ignored violations against the rights of Muslim and Jewish communities.</span></p><p>DignityUSA was a leading organizer of a coalition of Catholic leaders that called for the Commissions dissolution in 2019 and condemned the projects final report in July 2020 calling the State Departments effort an attempt to undermine the cohesion of human dignity and all human rights. This response to the Commissions report was signed by over 300 Catholic scholars and faith leaders and was featured as a public comment on the State Departments website later that year.</p><p>Marianne Duddy-Burke Executive Director of DignityUSA called the State Department shift a major victory for human rights and an encouraging sign that the United States is resuming its tradition of advocating for marginalized and disadvantaged people around the world. LGBTQ+ people in many countries can breathe more easily now knowing that the Biden/Harris DignityUSAistration understands that their rights are human rights.</p><p>Duddy-Burke continued We are deeply grateful to the hundreds of Catholic leaders who spoke out against the ways some tried to co-opt our faith to exclude LGBTQ+ people women immigrants asylum seekers and other vulnerable people in the name of religious liberty. Our faith proclaims the dignity and human rights of all and we are grateful that U.S. foreign policy will once again be guided by a broad vision of equity in the human community.</p><p>Contacts:</p><p>Marianne Duddy-Burke: <a href=mailto:execdir@dignityusa.org>execdir@dignityusa.org</a></p><p>Jeff Stone: <a href=mailto:jefastone@aol.com>jefastone@aol.com</a></p><p style=text-align: center;><i>###</i></p><p style=text-align: center;><i>DignityUSA is the worlds largest membership organization of Catholics committed to justice equality and full inclusion of lesbian gay bisexual queer and transgender people in our church and society. Founded in 1969 it is also a founding member of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics</i></p>