The Trump White House will not pressure African countries to repeal anti-LGBTQ laws, according to Mick Mulvaney.
Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman and current Director of the Office of Management and Budget as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, made the statement while speaking at the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, DC.
Mulvaney said that the Obama administration had gone too far in trying to promote equal rights, such as President Barack Obama saying he would put an emphasis on the importance of LGBTQ rights in a visit to Kenya in 2015. Kenya currently punishes homosexuality with up to 14 years in prison.
“Our US taxpayer dollars [were] used to discourage Christian values in other democratic countries, he said. “It was stunning to me that my government under the previous administration would go to folks in sub-Saharan Africa and say, ‘We know that you have a law against abortion, but if you enforce that law, you’re not going to get any of our money. We know you have a law against gay marriage, but if you enforce that law, we’re not going to give you any money.’
He added: “That’s a different type of religious persecution. (…) That is a different type of religious persecution that I never expected to see. I never expected to see that as an American Christian, that we would be doing that to other folks. I am here to let you know there are many people in our government who care about [these issues.] There are a lot of people in this government who want to see things done differently. They want to do something.”
Mirroring many members of the Trump Administration, Mulvaney has opposed LGBTQ rights multiple times, scoring him zero on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard.
He was also a co-sponsor on the First Amendment Defense Act, which would have permitted religiously motivated LGBTQ discrimination.
New York City’s LGBTQ voters narrowly favor State Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens) over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the upcoming Democratic primary -- though one in four remain undecided as early voting begins this week.
A new poll by the Honan Strategy Group, commissioned by LGBTQ advocacy group Destination Tomorrow, finds that LGBTQ New Yorkers make up about 20% of the Democratic electorate heading into the June 24 primary, according to The New York Post.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, saving free PrEP and other preventive treatments, including screenings for cancer, heart disease, and sexually transmitted infections.
Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the task force was tasked with identifying which preventive services insurers could cover without passing additional costs to consumers. As a result, insurers began covering a wide range of screenings and treatments, including mammograms, colonoscopies, cancer screenings, heart disease prevention, STI testing, and mental health evaluations.
Graeme Reid will continue as the U.N.'s expert on LGBT rights for another three years, as 29 nations back the mandate despite opposition from China, Pakistan, and others.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has voted to extend the mandate of its LGBT rights expert, ensuring continued global oversight of anti-LGBTQ human rights violations for another three years.
Under the mandate, the U.N.'s Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is tasked with identifying the root causes of anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination, and advising U.N. member states on how to better protect LGBTQ communities.
The current independent expert, South African scholar Graeme Reid, will continue in the role for another three years. Reid is the third person to hold the position since it was established in 2016.
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