A newly-created State Department position is about to be put to good use.
Randy Berry (photo: left) is the U.S. State Department’s first-ever Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons. He joined the foreign service in 1993, and assumed his new post last month.
Berry, who has served in posts in Amsterdam, New Zealand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Egypt, and South Africa, has also held posts twice in Uganda.
So when the veteran diplomat returns to Uganda in July, his visit and its purpose will come as no surprise to anyone there.
Uganda, thanks in large part to American evangelical Christians and Christian extremists, like Scott Lively, has become a war zone for LGBT people, as a recent VICE exposé revealed.
The impoverished nation of Uganda has been the scene of a years-long battle over their “Kill the Gays” bill, which became law but was struck down by the Supreme Court, but only on a technicality. Regardless of the law, LGBT people are hunted, raped, beaten, bullied, and many live in constant fear.
Buzzfeed reports the State Department “could not immediately provide further details of the trip or what Berry hoped to accomplish,” but notes that “Ugandan and American LGBT activists have previously criticized the U.S. response to the passage” of the Kill the Gays bill, and “for being slow and sending missed messages.”
Yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power welcomed Berry to Twitter:
And Berry sent his first tweet:
Today, Special Envoy Berry is in Jamaica for a three-day visit. That country’s record on LGBT civil rights is also dismal. There is widespread homophobia and anti-LGBT violence in that island nation of nearly three million people.
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Related:
‘I Kill Them!’: HBO’s VICE Goes To Uganda To See What American Anti-Gay Christians Have Created
Gay Rights Activists In Uganda Fight Back With First LGBT Publication
Gays Adopt Kids ‘To Train Them On Gay Practices’ Says Uganda Lawmaker Pushing Anti-Gay Bill
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Image by U.S. Department of State via Flickr