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| 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.
