washington blade
Michael K. Lavers
Original Article: bit.ly/1JNsWVg
The acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday said LGBT people are among those who are the most affected by poverty.
“When we talk about our mission statement which is to end poverty in our lifetime, some of the people who are most victimized by poverty are the LGBTI community because they were ostracized and they were cast aside,” said Alfonso Lenhardt as he highlighted a new initiative to enhance LGBT rights movements in Eastern Europe and countries within the former Soviet Union during an event at USAID’s headquarters in downtown Washington. “In my experience, in my life it’s all about fairness, it’s all about equal opportunity. It’s all about giving everyone an opportunity to be part of this great world, to make their unique contributions.”
A number of LGBT rights advocates attended the event at which Lenhardt spoke. Representatives of USAID missions in Kosovo, Moldova, Albania, Serbia and Georgia also took part from their respective posts.
“One of the great things about this toolkit is that the analysis it employs, the lessons it draws and the recommendations it makes are in most instances of universal relevance,” said USAID Senior LGBT Coordinator Todd Larson during the event. “That was one of my eureka moments in carefully reading this report – its universality.”
Full text of article available at link below: bit.ly/1JNsWVg
