NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Rights advocates on Thursday praised a new U.S. government rule barring its foreign aid contractors from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, as violence against the community continues globally.

The new rule by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the world's largest government aid agency, requires that organizations adhere to its standards of inclusiveness in the way they carry out services it funds.