The Trump administration is veering off its deeply-held beliefs, often stated by the President himself, to not address human rights or cultural issues in other nations.
According to an exclusive report by NBC News, the Trump administration claims it will begin to hold conversations that it hopes will lead to a plan that would effectively eliminate the criminalization of homosexuality worldwide. Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell (photo), is said to be leading the effort.
The administration reportedly will focus on just one nation’s laws against LGBT people: Iran. Trump has made clear Iran is public enemy number one and for years has sought to lay the groundwork, some say, to ramp up existing tensions against the country, which is a state sponsor of terror.
“The administration is responding in part to a reported hanging of a young gay man in Iran, Trump’s top geopolitical foe,” says NBC News.
Unlike most administrations, the Trump administration is announcing its plans before having put them in place. There is no actual plan to eliminate the criminalization of homosexuality worldwide, which would be a monumental achievement that would save countless lives, and allow LGBTQ people, especially children and teens, the chance for a better life.
Noting that “the decriminalization strategy is still being hashed out,” NBC News reports the planning “kicks off Tuesday evening in Berlin. The U.S. embassy is flying in LGBT activists from across Europe for a strategy dinner to plan to push for decriminalization in places that still outlaw homosexuality — mostly concentrated in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean.”
“It is concerning that, in the 21st century, some 70 countries continue to have laws that criminalize LGBTI status or conduct,” said a U.S. official involved in organizing the event.
The website 76Crimes tracks countries with laws that criminalize homosexuality. It reports there are currently 73 nations that make being LGBT a crime, down from 92 in 2006.
At least eight nations make homosexuality a capital crime, with the punishment being the death penalty.
The administration has not said how it will deal with the President’s entrenched base, especially the unwavering support he relies on greatly from the religious right. Some of his top supporters, with whom he has met inside the Oval Office, support the criminalization of homosexuality here in the United States.
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