For over a dozen years and on several continents, Scott Long has documented and advocated against human rights violations based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV status.  For five years he lobbied the United Nations on sexual rights issues; his work led to U.N. human rights mechanisms agreeing publicly for the first time to take up gay and lesbian concerns. 

As program director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) for almost six years, he edited or co-authored reports on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender parenting, and on the use of sexuality to target women's and feminist organizing.  He is the researcher and author of Public Scandals: Sexual Orientation and Criminal Law in Romania, a report by Human Rights Watch and IGLHRC, and of More than a Name: State-Sponsored Homophobia and Its Consequences in Southern Africa, also for Human Rights Watch and IGLHRC.  He also researched and authored In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice in Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct, Human Rights Watch's detailed report on sexuality and Egyptian criminal justice.  In 2006, Long was the principal author of a report on binational same-sex couples and the discrimination they face in U.S. immigration law, amid a fierce religious and social backlash against recognition of same-sex relationships in the United States. Long has also produced a widely-used manual introducing grassroots activists to international human rights systems.  He has written and published extensively on issues of sexuality, culture, and human rights. 

Long holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has taught at the University of Budapest, as well as holding a Fulbright lectureship at the University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania. He was a founding member of the Romanian gay and lesbian organization ACCEPT. His work spearheaded a European campaign and contributed strongly to Romania's eventual repeal of Article 200 in 2001. While in the latter capacity shortly after the Romanian revolution, he began his career as a human rights activist, documenting and defending people imprisoned under Romania's repressive sodomy law.  He joined Human Rights Watch as a consultant in 2002 to develop a project on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights, and in March 2004 was hired as its director.

Human Rights Watch Reports

Family, Unvalued: Discrimination, Denial, and the Fate of Binational Same-Sex Couples under U.S. Law (May, 2006)

In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice In Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct  (March, 2004)

Articles

The Issue is Torture Guardian Unlimite, March 31, 2008