The Trump White House will not pressure African countries to repeal anti-LGBTQ laws, according to Mick Mulvaney.
Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman and current Director of the Office of Management and Budget as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, made the statement while speaking at the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, DC.
Mulvaney said that the Obama administration had gone too far in trying to promote equal rights, such as President Barack Obama saying he would put an emphasis on the importance of LGBTQ rights in a visit to Kenya in 2015. Kenya currently punishes homosexuality with up to 14 years in prison.
“Our US taxpayer dollars [were] used to discourage Christian values in other democratic countries, he said. “It was stunning to me that my government under the 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.’
He added: “That’s a different type of religious persecution. (…) That is a different type of religious persecution that I never expected to see. I never expected to see that as an American Christian, that we would be doing that to other folks. I am here to let you know there are many people in our government who care about [these issues.] There are a lot of people in this government who want to see things done differently. They want to do something.”
Mirroring many members of the Trump Administration, Mulvaney has opposed LGBTQ rights multiple times, scoring him zero on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard.
He was also a co-sponsor on the First Amendment Defense Act, which would have permitted religiously motivated LGBTQ discrimination.
Last month, police in the Malaysian state of Kelantan arrested more than 20 men who allegedly attended a private gathering for gay men at a rented bungalow in the village of Kampung Kemumin. Authorities claimed the men were suspected of intending to engage in “immoral activities.”
At a July 19 press briefing, Kelantan police chief Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mamat said the raid followed a public tip about the mid-June event, which led officers to form a special task force to investigate. The gathering, he said, was a closed-door event promoted on social media and charged an entry fee.
The U.S. Air Force says it will separate all transgender personnel with 15 to 18 years of service without retirement benefits. The move denies them early retirement under a policy that normally allows some members with more than 15 -- but fewer than 20 -- years of service to retire with prorated benefits instead of completing the standard 20 years.
Under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA), service members approved for early retirement receive prorated benefits -- including insurance coverage, disability pay, and access to housing on military bases.
Eric and Sara Smith, owners of Born Again Used Books -- a 21-year-old Christian bookstore in Colorado Springs -- are suing state officials over a new law that prohibits discrimination against transgender and gender-nonconforming people based on how they choose to be addressed.
The lawsuit challenges the Kelly Loving Act, named for a transgender woman killed in the 2022 Club Q shooting, which expands the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and was signed in May by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
The law expands the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and advertising based on "gender expression," which includes a person’s appearance, manner of dress, behavior, chosen name, and how they choose to be addressed.
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