Nomination of Sam Brownback to be Religious Freedom Ambassador Advances

Exactly What Kind of Religious Freedom Will Brownback Be Advancing?

Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback is one step closer to becoming President Donald Trump’s Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. His nomination was almost defeated in a 49-49 Senate vote Wednesday afternoon, but Vice President Mike Pence was on hand to cast the tie-breaking vote to allow debate. 

Brownback is one of the nation’s most hard-line anti-LGBT religious wingnuts. So is Mike Pence.

Brownback, as GLAAD notes, has called same-sex marriage a “radical social experimentation,” “a grave threat to our central social institution,” and even “harmful to the future of the Republic,” leading many to wonder what types of “religious freedom” policies he will be championing abroad in the name of the Trump administration – and America.

Just how unpopular is this nomination? Not a single Democrat voted for cloture to advance it to debate.

A former Congressman and Senator, Brownback has gone so far as to claim that same-sex marriages are “vast, social experiments” that “will drive the marriage rates down.”

During Brownback’s committee confirmation hearing last year the governor just could not come up with a good explanation for why – in his second term of office – he rescinded his predecessor’s executive order protecting state LGBT workers.

“That was an order that created a right by the executive branch that wasn’t available to other people that wasn’t passed by the legislative branch,” Brownback, in a muddled response, offered to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). Kaine responded that within his first 10 minutes of becoming governor of Virginia he signed an executive order protecting LGBT people.

As governor Brownback in 2016 signed a “religious freedom” bill into law, proclaiming it would protect discriminatory groups, which he called “the building blocks of society.”

In 2014 Brownback refused to follow federal appellate court rulings on same-sex marriage that should have affected his state.

“I swore an oath to support the Constitution of the State of Kansas,” Brownback said in a statement. “An overwhelming majority of Kansas voters amended the Constitution to include a definition of marriage as one man and one woman. Activist judges should not overrule the people of Kansas.” 

Brownback’s tenure as governor has been horrific. His state’s finances are in shambles. In an unprecedented move, the GOP-controlled state legislature overrode his veto last year so they could raise taxes to protect Kansas from going bankrupt.