State Department
Blade sits down with U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Scott Miller married to Gill Foundation founder Tim Gill
A law that extended marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples in Switzerland took effect on July 1, 2022, three days before the Fourth of July. Scott Miller, the openly gay U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, on that day noted the marriage and adoption equality law in a speech that marked the Fourth of July.
“The Swiss constitution states, ‘the Swiss Confederation shall … ensure the greatest possible equality of opportunity among its citizens.’ This is a powerful statement which acknowledges equality as one of the most basic principles of democracy,” said Miller. “Today, this is especially true as we celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage and the right of adoption.”
“Tim (Gill) and I know very acutely what it means when a government, and the rest of the citizens of a country, say you are entitled to the same rights and benefits to live happily in love who you love,” added Miller. “So, I am immensely … immensely proud that we get to celebrate our Independence Day on this historic day in Switzerland.”
Miller, whose husband, Tim Gill, founded the Gill Foundation, assumed his post last December after the U.S. Senate confirmed him. Miller is one of seven openly gay and lesbian American ambassadors.
Miller on Sept. 23 told the Washington Blade during an interview in D.C. that his Fourth of July speech “was perhaps one of the more meaningful aspects of my ambassadorship so far.”
“I talked about the expansion of rights and our work to make a more perfect union,” he noted. “Tying that to equality was, I think, one of the most profound moments of this experience thus far.”
Miller spoke at first Liechtenstein Pride in June
Miller was previously an account vice president of the Switzerland-based UBS Wealth Management bank in Denver. Miller also co-chaired the Gill Foundation’s board of directors until the U.S. Senate confirmed his ambassadorship.
Miller while in D.C. attended the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference at the State Department and visited the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Miller also attended Elton John’s performance at the White House that took place hours after he spoke with the Blade.
Miller noted he has known President Joe Biden “from when he was a senator, and my work with him started on LGBTQ rights.”
“Needless to say, when he called last April I was shocked,” said Miller, referring to Biden’s decision to nominate him for the ambassadorship. “I had never really considered that as a possibility.”
Biden in February 2021 signed a memo that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad as part of his administration’s overall foreign policy.
Miller said his embassy has “a depth of relationships with the LGBTQ community and activists and organizations in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.”
Liechtenstein, a small and predominantly Roman Catholic country that has yet to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples, in June held its first-ever Pride event. Miller was among those who organizers invited to speak.
“It will be a discussion that I think activists will have to work on a lot,” he said, referring to marriage equality efforts in Liechtenstein. “I will support (them) in any way I can.”
Miller said he was not surprised that Biden issued the foreign policy memo, but he added he “knew coming into this where his heart was on LGBTQI+ issues.”
“I didn’t really need a memo or any directive from the State Department,” Miller told the Blade. “I’m the president’s personal envoy. To know that I am going to be able to continue the same work that I was doing and have this different platform and help people improve lives, there’s a profound responsibility with that.”
“I’m glad obviously that it’s been further directed to my other colleagues, but it was work that I was doing,” he added.
Countries that seek to curtail LGBTQ rights ‘an outlier’
Miller spoke with the Blade against the backdrop of efforts in Hungary, Poland and other European countries to curtail LGBTQ and intersex rights. Giorgia Meloni, the anti-LGBTQ and intersex head of Italy’s far-right Brothers of Italy party, is poised to become the country’s next prime minister after general elections that took place on Sept. 25.
“I’m so entirely focused on Switzerland and I’m lucky that we are in a position of stepping forward and advancing rights and extending more rights to people,” said Miller. “There will always be a push pull on any civil rights costs. We see that even in our own country here as it relates to women’s reproductive rights, and disability rights. So ultimately, I look at this sense that progress will be made. It won’t always be linear, and it won’t always be without taking a step backwards at time.”
“This is where leadership matters and to have my president, our president, be a leader on this sends a message to those other countries that you’re going to be an outlier in the eyes of democracy if this is how you treat a portion of your community,” he added. “That’s the messaging we need to continue to spread, but obviously it’s an immense concern whenever you have a leader starting to single out any individual part of a society.”
Miller also praised the Swiss government’s response to the war in Ukraine.
He noted Switzerland adopted EU sanctions against Russia days after the war began on Feb. 24. Miller also pointed out Switzerland has welcomed Ukrainian refugees into the country, and his embassy has worked to process visas that would allow them to travel to the U.S.
“Europe’s response has been good, and Switzerland’s has been good, but again the leadership of the United States on this issue has brought us closer together with Europe in a way that I hadn’t experienced in my lifetime,” said Miller.
State Department
Report: US to withhold HIV aid to Zambia unless mineral access expanded
New York Times obtained Secretary of State Marco Rubio memo
The State Department is reportedly considering withholding assistance for Zambians with HIV unless the country’s government allows the U.S. to access more of its minerals.
The New York Times on Monday reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo to State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs staffers wrote the U.S. “will only secure our priorities by demonstrating willingness to publicly take support away from Zambia on a massive scale.” The newspaper said it obtained a copy of the letter.
Zambia is a country in southern Africa that borders Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Times notes upwards of 1.3 million Zambians receive daily HIV medications through PEPFAR. The newspaper reported Rubio in his memo said the Trump-Vance administration could “significantly cut assistance” as soon as May.
“Reports of (the) State Department withholding lifesaving HIV treatment in return for mining concessions in Zambia does not make us safer, stronger, or more prosperous,” said U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday. “Monetizing innocent people’s lives further undermines U.S. global leadership and is just plain wrong.”
The Washington Blade has reached out to the State Department for comment.
Zambia received breakthrough HIV prevention drug through PEPFAR
Rubio on Jan. 28, 2025, issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during a freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, 2025, has severely impacted their work.
The State Department last September announced PEPFAR will distribute lenacapavir in countries with high prevalence rates. Zambia two months later received the first doses of the breakthrough HIV prevention drug.
Kenya and Uganda are among the African countries have signed health agreements with the U.S. since the Trump-Vance administration took office.
The Times notes the countries that signed these agreements pledged to increase health spending. The Blade last month reported LGBTQ rights groups have questioned whether these agreements will lead to further exclusion and government-sanctioned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
State Department
FOIA lawsuit filed against State Department for PEPFAR records
Council for Global Equality, Physicians for Human Rights seeking data, documents
The Council for Global Equality and Physicians for Human Rights have filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department for PEPFAR-related data and documents.
The groups, which Democracy Forward represents, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday.
Then-President George W. Bush in 2003 signed legislation that created PEPFAR. UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima last March said PEPFAR has saved 26 million lives around the world.
The Trump-Vance administration in January 2025 froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze.
The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of gaps in U.S. funding. HIV/AIDS activists have also sharply criticized the Trump-Vance administration over reported plans it will not fully fund PEPFAR in the current fiscal year.
The lawsuit notes the Council for Global Equality and Physicians for Human Rights have “filed several FOIA requests” with the State Department for PEPFAR-related data and documents. The groups filed their most recent request on Jan. 30.
“On Jan. 30, 2026, plaintiffs, through counsel, sent State a letter asking it to commit to prompt production of the requested records,” reads the lawsuit. “State responded that the request was being processed but did not commit to any timeline for production.”
“Plaintiffs have received no subsequent communication from State regarding this FOIA request,” it notes.
“Transparency and inclusion have been hallmarks of PEPFAR’s success in the last decade,” said Beirne Roose-Snyder, a senior policy fellow at the Council for Global Equality, in a press release that announced the lawsuit. “This unprecedented withholding of data, and concurrent ideological misdirection of foreign assistance to exclude LGBTQI+ people and others who need inclusive programming, has potentially devastating and asymmetrical impacts on already marginalized communities.”
“This data is vital to understanding who’s getting access to care and who’s being left behind,” added Roose-Snyder.
“We filed this lawsuit to seek transparency: the administration’s PEPFAR data blackout withholds information the public, health providers, and affected communities need to track the HIV epidemic and prevent avoidable illness and death, obscuring the true human cost of these policy decisions,” said Physicians for Human Rights Research, Legal, and Advocacy Director Payal Shah.
The State Department has yet to respond to the Blade’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Eswatini
PEPFAR delivers first doses of groundbreaking HIV prevention drug to two African countries
Lenacapavir now available in Eswatini and Zambia.
The State Department on Tuesday announced PEPFAR has delivered the first doses of a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug to two African countries.
The lenacapavir doses arrived in Eswatini and Zambia.
The State Department in September unveiled an initiative with Gilead Sciences to bring lenacapavir “to market in high-burden HIV countries.”
Lenacapavir users inject the drug twice a year.
The State Department in its September announcement noted everyone who participated in Gilead’s clinical trials remained HIV negative. It also said lenacapavir “has the potential to be particularly helpful for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, as it safely protects them during and after pregnancy to prevent mother-to-child transmission.”
“In our new America First Global Health Strategy, the Department of State is establishing a first-of-its-kind innovation fund to support American-led research, market-shaping, and other dynamic advancements in global health,” said PEPFAR on Tuesday in a press release.
“The arrivals of the first doses of lenacapavir in Eswatini and Zambia mark an important milestone in HIV prevention and reflect our commitment to supporting communities with the greatest need,” added Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day. “For the first time, a new HIV medicine is reaching communities in sub-Saharan Africa in the same year as its U.S. approval.”
The September announcement came against the backdrop of widespread criticism over the Trump-Vance administration’s reported plans to not fully fund PEPFAR and to cut domestic HIV/AIDS funding. The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to curtail services or even close because of U.S. funding cuts.
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