An annual U.S. State Department report detailing human rights around the world will remove all sections covering the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, and the disabled as well as sections dedicated to discrimination against indigenous people and corruption in government, Politico reports. The censored report has likely been drafted in response to the president’s executive orders banning all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the federal government.

The annual report is “widely anticipated and read in capitals around the world,” according to the aforementioned publication. The report is used by advocacy organizations, lawyers, and others to assess political developments in foreign countries, need-based aid programs, as well as asylum claims from refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries.

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The LGBTQ+ section of the report usually included sections on physical harm, persecution, freedom of expression and transgender rights. The entire section has been removed.

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Similarly, the women’s section used to include sub-categories on forced intercourse, battery, reproductive rights, female genital mutilation, and discrimination. Instead, the new report is expected only to have a section devoted to “coercion in population control,” though its exact content remains unclear.

In place of the deleted sections, the new report will contain new sections on religious freedom, some workers’ rights, human trafficking, child labor, and protecting refugees.

“There’s a real question about the value of this report coming out under the [current] administration. Is it accurate? Is it politically motivated? Will it only describe human rights abuses by enemies instead of allies?” Andrea Prasow, executive director of the political prisoner advocacy organization Freedom Now, asked.

The censored report is just one of many recent anti-LGBTQ+ actions taken by the current administration’s Department of State.

Early into the new administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suspended all passports applications requesting changes to gender marker, something that endangers trans, nonbinary and intersex passport holders whose gender presentation may differ from the gender they were assigned at birth. Eighty-two House Democrats recently signed a letter demanding that the administration undo this policy change.

Rubio also ended all foreign aid for international HIV prevention programs, endangering the lives of millions. Rubio has also signaled his intention to permanently ban any foreign trans athletes from entering the United States.

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