The Trump administration has Harvard University in its sights, threatening to cut off federal research dollars and bar international students from enrolling. It’s part of a wide-ranging assault on higher education, designed to force schools to abandon their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

While the battle rages in federal court, Harvard is breaking new ground in its efforts to advance LGBTQ Human Rights in the U.S. and around the globe.

In May 2024, the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, a think tank in the Harvard Kennedy School, stood up the Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program. The program is tasked with increasing the capacity of established and emerging leaders, creating educational curricula for movement building, facilitating research into LGBTQI+ issues, and advancing global collaboration and partnerships among activists, academics, policymakers and the media.

Journalist David Hunt talked with the program’s founding director, Diego Garcia Blum, about the program’s inaugural year and the challenges confronting higher education in the Trump era.

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David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.