During his speech before the United Nations today, Donald Trump included a mention of his administration’s previously announced plans to encourage more than 70 countries worldwide to decriminalize homosexuality.
“My administration is working with other nations to stop criminalizing of homosexuality,” Trump said in a halting cadence. “And we stand in solidarity with (pause) LGBTQ people who live in countries that punish, jail and execute people based upon sexual orientation.”
Gregory T. Angelo, who served as president of the Log Cabin Republicans for six years, quickly tweeted a video of Trump’s inclusion of the initiative.
.@POTUS @realDonaldTrump at #UNGA: “My administration is working with other nations to stop criminalizing of homosexuality and we stand in solidarity with LGBTQ people who live in countries that punish, jail or execute individuals based upon sexual orientation.” pic.twitter.com/U3q8Ojvlam
— Gregory T. Angelo (@gregorytangelo) September 24, 2019
Thank you @realDonaldTrump for standing up for the #LGBTQ community in calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality in your speech at the @UN this morning.
— LogCabinRepublicans (@LogCabinGOP) September 24, 2019
The global initiative, which is reportedly being led by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, was announced in February.
This is the first time Trump has mentioned the initiative in a public speech.
Angelo and his conservative LGBTQ bunch may be fawning over today’s two-sentence mention, but it’s worth noting that Trump is not the first president to mention LGBTQ issues while addressing the United Nations.
That would be President Barack Obama.
During an address of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2011, President Obama said, “No country should deny people their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but also no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere.”
Later that same year, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a full 30-minute speech regarding LGBTQ rights before the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
It was there that she famously told the United Nations delegates, “Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”
While Trump may TALK about standing in ‘solidarity’ with LGBTQ people, GLAAD’s ‘Trump Accountability Project’ just noted his administration’s 125th attack on the LGBTQ community since taking office.
Included among those are:
• Filing an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans
• Trump’s misguided ban on transgender military service members
• Efforts to use ‘religious freedoms’ as a basis for legalizing LGBTQ discrimination
• Announcing plans for a new policy which would allow adoption agencies to deny LGBTQ couples the ability to adopt children based on so-called “religious exemptions”
