WATCH: Blinken urges global effort to expand LGBTQ rights

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the United Nations LGBTI Core Group on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting Monday.

Watch Blinken’s remarks in the player above.

Blinken said the event was occurring “at a time when the movement for equality is showing some encouraging momentum” across the globe.

He pointed to movements by the governments of St. Kitts and Nevis as well as Antigua and Barbuda which all struck down provisions that criminalized same-sex relations.

Blinken also highlighted Vietnam’s recent step declaring that homosexuality can no longer be considered an illness and outlawing conversion therapy.

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Still, he underscored that all countries “have work to do” to ensure that LGBTI+ people have the same rights and protections as all other people. And he told the gathering that standing up for LGBTI+ rights is a “top priority” for the Biden administration.

“Defending these rights is central to the health of our democracies. Any system where some groups are treated as less than simply because of who they are is fundamentally flawed,” Blinken said.

President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order in June designed primarily to protect LGBTI kids from discrimination in schools, following a series of laws passed in conservative leaning states.

The LGBTI Core Group is an informal cross regional group of United Nations Member States that seeks to protect LGBTI communities from discrimination and human rights violations.