WASHINGTON — The United States named its first international envoy for gay rights Monday, tasking a veteran diplomat with leading US efforts to fight violence and discrimination against LGBT individuals overseas.
Randy Berry, currently the consul general in the Netherlands, will promote human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, Secretary of State John Kerry said.
A longtime foreign service officer, Berry has served at US posts in Bangladesh, Egypt, Uganda, and South Africa, and speaks Spanish and Arabic.
"Defending and promoting the human rights of LGBT persons is at the core of our commitment to advancing human rights globally — the heart and conscience of our diplomacy," Kerry said in a statement.
He cited overturning laws that still criminalize same-sex activity in more than 75 countries as a specific priority.
The State Department has said it planned to appoint an openly gay diplomat to the post.
Long in the works, Berry's appointment as a special envoy is the latest move by President Obama's administration to make LGBT rights a prominent part of its human rights efforts around the world.
Earlier this year, the White House for the first time included human rights protection for LGBT people in its formal strategy regarding national security.