Over the last several decades, the increasing global attention to issues of human rights for

lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and other sexual minorities has focused on the intrinsic value of those rights from a social, cultural, and ethical perspective. Recognizing those rights represents a commitment to equality for a stigmatized group of people and to guaranteeing universal freedoms for those individuals. Enacting those rights to achieve equality means working to end discrimination and violence against LGBT people. The need for attention is clear: human rights agencies and scholars from around the world have documented violations of human rights, finding discrimination, family rejection, violence, imprisonment, and other forms of exclusion faced by LGBT people in every country studied.