By Bailey Vogt on July 30, 2018
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.
By John Riley on April 28, 2022 @JohnAndresRiley
A Florida teacher has been ordered to remove a rainbow-colored flag from his classroom wall on the grounds that the flag and the message it sends are too "political" in nature.
Jeremy Baldwin, a teacher at Booker High School in Sarasota, Florida, for the last five and a half years, says for years he's had three flags displayed in his classroom that symbolize peace, love, and acceptance -- in the hope of communicating to students that they should feel welcome in his classroom.
"It is just something that's meant to be there and kind of give the room an ambiance that everyone is welcome and we are just going to get along and coexist," Baldwin told NBC affiliate WFLA.
By John Riley on April 12, 2022 @JohnAndresRiley
A Georgia Republican candidate for Congress said that civil rights for Black people shouldn't apply to gay people because "they can actually change" to become straight.
Vernon Jones, who is running for Georgia's open 10th Congressional District seat and was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, made the comment during an appearance on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast on April 7.
"Let me tell you, civil rights for Blacks and gay rights for gays are two different things," Jones told the former Trump advisor. "I don't know what you are unless you tell me what you are if you're gay, but when I walk into that room, you can tell that I'm Black. I'm Black from cradle to grave. Let's not get that confused, but they can actually change."
By John Riley on April 7, 2022 @JohnAndresRiley
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman to be elevated to the nation's highest court.
In the face of virulent opposition from conservative Republicans, Jackson was confirmed by a vote of 53-47, with only three Republicans -- Senators Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) -- voting to approve her nomination to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who will retire at the end of the court's session this summer.
Jackson is the first person to be nominated to the high court by President Joe Biden, who had promised to nominate a Black woman while campaigning for president back in 2020. Supporters praised Jackson's nomination, noting she would bring diversity and a different perspective to the court, which has often been criticized for its lack of racial and ideological diversity.
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