United States to team with countries who persecute LGBTQ people for 'pro-family' manifesto, including 'Kill the Gays' bill sponsor Uganda

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

This is dedicated to those in our community who seem to think that Donald Trump is pro-LGBTQ, particularly Brandon Straka, Chadwick Moore, and Richard Grenell.

According to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, the Trump Administration, led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is making a move on the international stage with regards to women's health and the LGBTQ community.

And it's not a positive one:

On Thursday, Oct. 22, less than two weeks before an election that could bring the Trump administration to a close, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar are scheduled to join Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda in sponsoring a virtual ceremony to sign the “Geneva Consensus Declaration,” reports the Independent, which notes that, other than the U.S., the sponsoring nations involved “have strict laws on both abortion and same-sex or ban each entirely.” 

 The HHS announcement of the event says the declaration “further strengthens a coalition to achieve these four pillars: (1) better health for women, (2) the preservation of human life, (3) strengthening of family as the foundational unit of society, and (4) protecting every nation’s sovereignty in global politics.”

 The event appears to be a culmination of Pompeo’s intensive efforts to build opposition to any international recognition of a right to reproductive choice—and his zeal to undermine international recognition of the rights of LGBTQ people while celebrating governmental enforcement of “traditional” religious values on gender, sexuality, and family.

The article from the Independent said the following:

Appointed by the president in 2018, secretary Pompeo has been seeking to push a pro-life US foreign policy during his time in office. Late last month he attempted to use a US-sponsored UN event as a platform to redefine international human rights and prioritize “religious freedom” over LGBTQ equality. But the event was boycotted by most EU member states. 

 In a speech titled 'Promoting and Protecting Human Rights: A Re-Dedication to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights', secretary Pompeo told those nations in attendance that international human rights protections are in “crisis". At the meeting he also touted a recent Trump commission report which elevated rights such as religious freedom as "unalienable", meaning they can't be taken away. The report also dismissed abortion and same-sex marriage as "divisive social and political controversies".

Points 1 and 2 of this "manifesto" seems to be a clever way of standing for the restriction of abortion, which is bad enough. Points 3 and 4 should bring chills to LGBTQ people because even though we aren't mentioned per se, we would be negatively affected, Particularly point 4 with regards to "sovereignty." It means the United States would not say a word if a foreign nation chooses to persecute its gay citizens.

And that would be a huge point to make when one takes into account the nations participating in this "manifesto." At least two are infamously known for their opposition to LGBTQ rights and their persecution of their own LGBTQ  citizens.

According to PinkNews, Hungary's LGBTQ community have faced concentrated attacks by its government. Prime Minister Viktor Orban made it his mission to persecute LGBTQ people from creating false panics that they are after children to attempts to eliminate transgender rights. 

And then there's Uganda, where persecution against LGBTQ people became an ugly international incident in 2009 when a bill was introduced which sought to execute people for being LGBTQ.  Uganda faced a huge backlash which lasted for years. The bill was changed from the penalty being death to that of life imprisonment and Uganda's parliament made it a law in 2013. In 2014, Uganda's Constitutional Court struck it down based on a technicality.

Last year however, Ugandan officials began looking to resurrect the law. And this time, should the law be resurrected and Trump receives a second term, don't count on the United States being in the chorus of countries condemning it.  So much for Trump's supposed effort to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide. Of course that effort was bogus. And this act by Pompeo merely cements that fact.

Just something to think about when you're in the voting booth. That is if the Trump Administration hasn't given you enough already to think about.