On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Diego Garcia Blum speaks with Wendy Sherman about her experience speaking to global leaders about LGBTQI+ rights while serving as Under Secretary of State from 2021-2023. In addition to her work at the State Department, she is a Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School as well as a Senior Fellow at the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is currently an MSNBC global affairs contributor and on the USA TODAY Board of Contributors. Her most recent book, “Not for the Faint of Heart: Lessons in Courage, Power and Persistence” was published by PublicAffairs in September 2018.
On today’s episode they discuss: how she approached conversations with heads of state that have anti-LGBTQI+ laws in their country, what values around this issue went into the Biden administration's foreign policy agenda, how she balanced a country’s domestic cultural and religious issues in her foreign policy work, the rollback of LGBTQI+ rights worldwide, and strategies for activists and leaders working on upholding rights.