Family Research Council applauds Trump's new visa policy because, quite simply, it hurts gays

Family Research Council head Tony Perkins applauds how a new Trump policy hurts foreign gay diplomats.

On Tuesday, the Trump Administration initiated a new policy denying visas to same sex partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations officials if the couples aren't married. Some have cried foul over this policy because some of these diplomats come from countries which don't allow gays to marry. But anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council has applauded the policy for basically the same reason. And specifically because it serves to hurt the LGBTQ community. Some will say that this observation, and the headline of this post, is alarmist and hysterical. However I stand by it. A comparison between the garishly vulgar way FRC president Tony Perkins celebrates this policy compared to how it hurts gay couples (via NPR) proves my point:

Family Research Council:

No sooner had Hillary Clinton taken over as secretary than the White House ordered her to use the agency as a club to beat other nations into submission on sexual politics. Under her leadership -- and, later, Secretary John Kerry's -- the State Department worked, not to advance America's interests, but the interests of the Left's radical social agenda. Obviously, the strategy was for the State Department to force these policies on the international stage and then build pressure on the U.S. to adopt policies like it.

. . . Fortunately, the Trump administration has real respect for other nations' beliefs -- and Secretary Mike Pompeo's agency is proving it. Yesterday, the administration announced a new policy at the State Department that would block diplomatic visas for the same-sex partners of any foreign officials and U.N. employees. As of Monday, couples will have to provide proof of marriage for their significant others to stay in the country after 2018. Right now, experts think that about 10 U.N. employees would be affected by the change.

"Same-sex spouses of U.S. diplomats now enjoy the same rights and benefits as opposite-sex spouses," the U.S. mission wrote in a July 12 note to U.N.-based delegations. "Consistent with [State] Department policy, partners accompanying members of permanent missions or seeking to join the same must generally be married in order to be eligible" for a diplomatic visa.

To most conservatives, it was powerful rebuke of Hillary Clinton's 2009 decision to bypass the law for LGBT partners. And an important one. As it stands, only 12 percent of U.N. member states allow same-sex marriage -- putting the Obama State Department well out of step with the world. Thank goodness for the Trump administration, which has proven time and time again that its focus is religious freedom and human rights for everyone -- not special rights for a select few.

NPR:

LGBTQ activists, for their part, have expressed alarm that the move will actually harm these couples, many of whom hail from countries where same-sex marriage is illegal. Without a legal marriage, and thus without a visa, such partners face the threat of deportation; but activists point out that if they get legally married to stay in the U.S., they could also face persecution upon returning to their home country.

Same-sex marriage remains illegal in the vast majority of United Nations member states — some of which, such as Saudi Arabia, which is on friendly terms with the U.S., punish same-sex relationships with the death penalty.

. . . Human Rights Watch also noted that getting married in the U.S. still poses dangers back at home for many foreigners.

"In many situations registering a marriage could put same-sex couples at risk in a way that privately providing evidence of a domestic partnership would not have done," said Akshaya Kumar, the organization's deputy U.N. director.

"One Nigerian man (not a UN staffer) who married his same-sex partner abroad reported that both he and his family members in Nigeria received death threats as a result. Egypt, Tunisia, Cameroon, Tanzania, Indonesia, Uganda, Russia and many other countries have arrested people for same-sex conduct."

According to administration officials, the change directly impacts 105 families, roughly half of whom are connected with international organizations based in the U.S. such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. 

So at the same time the Family Research Council applauds the Trump Administration attempting to protect "religious liberty" on an international scale, it deems the right of foreign gay couples to be together and not be persecuted  for it as a "special right" and not on the level of basic human rights. In addition, FRC actually applauds foreign countries which persecute gay couples.

I guess that's one good thing about Trump being in the White House. With the power and influence he gives to groups like the Family Research Council, they can drop the masks and stop pretending that they don't hate the LGBTQ community.