A representative of the Trump administration said that the U.S. government will stop advocating for LGBTQ rights in Africa.
According to Daily Nation, Mick Mulvaney, who’s the director of the Office of Management and Budget, spoke at religious freedom conference on July 24.
While speaking to the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, Mulvaney shared that the U.S. government will no longer fight against the discrimination of LGBTQ people in African nations. He says to do so would be a form of “religious persecution.”
“Our US taxpayer dollars are used to discourage Christian values in other democratic countries,” Mulvaney argued.
He then continued:
“It was stunning to me that my government under a previous administration would go to folks in sub-Saharan Africa and say, ‘We know that you have a law against abortion, but if you enforce that law, you’re not going to get any of our money. We know you have a law against gay marriage, but if you enforce that law, we’re not going to give you any money.’”
"That is a different type of religious persecution that I never expected to see,” Mulvaney worried. “I never expected to see that as an American Christian.”
“There are a lot of people in this government who just want to see things done differently,” he said.
This stance by the Trump Administration will probably be welcomed by Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta, who has previously shared his disinterest in LGBTQ rights and distaste at the U.S.'s involvement in it.
When former-President Barack Obama declared that governments should not discriminate against people based on sexual orientation while in Nairobi in 2016, Kenyatta responded, “For Kenyans today, the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue.”
Keep in mind that the U.S.'s four goals in distributing foreign aid to Kenya are:
- Strengthen democratic institutions
- Spur economic growth, trade and investment
- Advance peace and security
- Promote opportunity and development.
As such, encouraging the end of discrimination in the country would align with those goals.
This is just another instance of the Trump administration showing that it will not support LGBTQ people and will instead favor “religious freedom.”
h/t: Daily Nation
No Shit. They don’t defend
No Shit. They don’t defend them here. Tf they care about gay rights in one of those “shithole country”.
Didn’t you make this exact
Didn't you make this exact comment in the Facebook comments?