Hilton Worldwide joins coalition to fight for LGBTQ rights globally.
Hilton Worldwide became the first hospitality partner to join the Global Equality Fund as its newest partner, announced the United States State Department March 9 in a news release.
The announcement of the new partnership on Monday marks a long tradition with Hilton Worldwide partnering with the United States. After World War II ended, the U.S. government tapped Conrad Hilton to build hotels around the world to help promote American travel.
Hilton promised “world peace through international trade and travel,” read a plaque at the Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life at the Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby Street; 604-662-4700; VanArtGallery.bc.ca) in 2013.
Travel was a vehicle for making average Americans ambassadors. American’s responded leading the way creating a culture of travel, which was on magnificent display.
Hilton Worldwide has more than 4,300 hotels, resorts and timeshare properties in 94 countries and territories and brings significant experience in advancing diversity and inclusion.
Launched in 2011 by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Global Equality Fund has since brought together a strong and diverse alliance of like-minded governments, foundations, and corporations dedicated to advancing the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons globally. The fund has provided more than $17 million in aid to civil society organizations and human rights defenders with emergency assistance in response to threats or harassment, to build organizational capacity for human rights, advocacy, and development, and to combat negative social attitudes and societal discrimination in more than 50 countries.
The fund is overseen by the State Department with the participation from the U.S. Agency for International Development. For more information about the State Department’s work toward LGBTQ equality, visit www.humanrights.gov/dyn/issues/lgbt.html.
Hilton Worldwide joins other multinational corporations, such as Deloitte, the Royal Bank of Canada, and others as well as governments Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. The global hotelier also joins foundations such as the Arcus Foundation, the John D. Evans Foundation, the M.A.C AIDS Fund, and others and nongovernmental organizations LLH: the Norwegian LGBT Organization, the Human Rights Campaign and Out Leadership to name a few.
Together, these organizations are committed to protecting and promoting the human rights of LGBT persons worldwide.
For more information about the Global Equality Fund, visit www.state.gov/globalequality.
