Trump Kicks Off Campaign to Decriminalize Homosexuality

WASHINGTON, D.C — (02-20-19) — Trump Administration kicks off campaign to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide.  This after two years of his DOJ attacking the few rights the LGBTQ community has fought for over the past two decades.

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday February 19, that it will launch a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality in countries where LGBTQ people are still being jailed and killed for simply being homosexual.

The announcement comes on the heels of the Iranian regime’s public hanging of a man based on an anti-gay law. This is what led to the Trump administration’s announcement on Tuesday to end the criminalization of homosexuality worldwide.

The Trump administration’s most high-profile openly gay, US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, told the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that “71 countries criminalize homosexuality and eight will put you to death for being gay. The Trump Administration is launching a new push with our European allies to end this human rights outrage.”

Ambassador Grenell has been put in charge of the international effort to stop the LGBTQ persecutions in countries that impose criminal penalties, including the death penalty, on their LGBTQ communities.

Grenell went on to credit the Jerusalem Post in a commentary he wrote for Europe’s largest paper, the German-language Bild, on February 1:

“The recent press reports, first carried by The Jerusalem Post that the Iranian regime publicly hanged a 31-year-old man for being gay should be a wake up call for anyone who supports basic human rights. Politicians, the UN, democratic governments, diplomats, and good people everywhere should speak up – and loudly.

In Iran, where children as young as nine can be sentenced to death, gay teenagers are publicly hanged in order to terrify and intimidate others from coming out. Iran’s horrific actions are on par with the brutality and savagery regularly demonstrated by ISIS.”

NBC News reported on Tuesday that the US government initiated the new campaign “in part to a reported hanging of a young gay man in Iran, Trump’s top geopolitical foe.”

“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.” reported NBC News.

According to insiders at the White House and State Department said that openly Gay US Ambassador Grenell was a potential successor to Nikki Haley as UN ambassador. It may have something to do with no one else wanting the job but that is a subject for another article.

The initiative to decriminalize homosexuality by Grenell, will be a coordinated campaign among US Western allies, the US Department of State, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the United Nations to European governments.

In the 21st Century, we still have Muslim-majority countries in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia who still impose capital punishment on same-sex relations.

Countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE continue to persecute and put to death, people for simply engaging in same-sex relations.

Grenell tweeted on Monday, in response to Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif stating at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, “A professor who is helping to hang gay students? criminalizing homosexuality is in direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. #totalBS.”

A professor who is helping to hang gay students?

criminalizing homosexuality is in direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. #totalBS https://t.co/DwhqZIY4CW

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) February 18, 2019

We will continue to follow this story and see if the Trump administration is indeed now interested in protecting the LGBTQ community on a global scale. We will closely watch his administration as it pertains to domestic protections for the LGBTQ community.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer