WATCH: Rex Tillerson Just Can’t Seem to Bring Himself to Say Gay Rights Are Human Rights

Tillerson Delivers Blanket Statement Denouncing Violence and Discrimination

Donald Trump’s nominee to become Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, would not say if he believes gay rights are human rights. Sitting before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday afternoon, the former chairman and CEO of Exxon/Mobil was asked if he agrees that gay rights are human rights. He responded with a blanket statement about violence and discrimination not being part of American values. He did not mention LGBT people in response to the question about them.

Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Coons, echoing Hillary Clinton’s famous statement, told Tillerson, “I believe that LGBTQ rights are human rights, that gay rights are human rights.”

“In a number of meetings with African heads of state, I’ve advocated for them to push back on actions where they have engaged in preventing people from meeting, from advocating, where they’ve been physically abused or tortured,” the Senator from Delaware continued.

“I’ll never forget a meeting in my office in Delaware with a woman from Zimbabwe who was given asylum in the United States after being tortured in Zimbabwe because of who she loved. Do you believe gay rights are human rights and is that a piece of our human rights advocacy agenda around the world?” Coons, very specifically, asked.

American values don’t accommodate violence or discrimination against anyone,” Tillerson responded. “That’s part of that American values that we project.”

EARLIER: WATCH: Rex Tillerson Says He Would Need ‘A Lot More Information’ Before Deciding About a Muslim Registry

Apparently dissatisfied, Sen. Coons politely but with a touch of incredulity responded by asking if he could press him for a further question – which seemed like he meant to say “answer,” to which Tillerson merely shrugged. 

Coons noted that he had been “encouraged” by what he called Tillerson’s “tough leadership moment” when, as a leader of the Boy Scouts, he helped move the organization forward on gay rights. That solicited no further response from Tillerson.

Respectfully, Coons closed by offering a statement, saying that in his “work around the world, although not always easy or comfortable,” it is “important that we include respect for the whole range of people’s relations in our menu of how we define human rights.”

Michael Lavers, international news editor of the Washington Blade, who first reported the story, notes that Tillerson’s company, ExxonMobil, “in 2015 added sexual orientation and gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy. Freedom to Work, an LGBT advocacy group, two years earlier filed a complaint against ExxonMobil that alleged it showed bias against prospective employees who were gay.”

In fact, for years LGBT activists tried to convince Exxon/Mobil to expand its nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity, and the company always refused.

CNN reports that in 2006, when Tillerson became CEO of the energy behemoth, the HRC’ “index changed its criteria, and Exxon’s score went down to 0%.” But since then, “ExxonMobil has slowly made improvements — though that may have more to do with federal policy changes than moral leadership,” CNN notes.

Image: Screenshot via C-SPAN

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