U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Wednesday didn’t discuss LGBTQ rights overseas throughout his affirmation listening to to change into the following secretary of state.
The Florida Republican in his opening assertion to the Senate Overseas Affairs Committee famous President-elect Donald Trump “returns to workplace with an unmistakable mandate from the voters.”
“They need a robust America, a robust America engaged on the planet, however guided by a transparent goal to advertise peace overseas and safety and prosperity right here at house,” stated Rubio.
“The path he has given for the conduct of our overseas coverage is evident,” he added. “Each greenback we spend, each program we fund, and each coverage we pursue should be justified with the reply to 3 easy questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America extra affluent?”
Trump nominated Rubio every week after Vice President Kamala Harris conceded she misplaced the presidential election.
Rubio in 2022 defended Florida’s “Don’t Say Homosexual” legislation that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed. The Florida Republican that yr additionally voted in opposition to the Respect for Marriage Act that handed with bipartisan help.
LGBTQ rights a cornerstone of Biden-Harris administration’s overseas coverage
President Joe Biden in February 2021 signed a memo that dedicated the U.S. to selling LGBTQ and intersex rights overseas as a part of his administration’s total overseas coverage. A couple of months later he named Jessica Stern, the previous government director of Outright Worldwide, a worldwide advocacy group, as particular U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights overseas.
Ned Value, who was the State Division’s first overtly homosexual spokesperson, throughout a Could 2021 interview with the Washington Blade famous the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relations was one of many administration’s priorities in its efforts to advertise LGBTQ rights overseas.
Trump throughout his first administration tapped then-U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who has been tapped as particular missions envoy, to steer an initiative that inspired nations to decriminalize homosexuality. Activists with whom the Blade has beforehand spoken questioned whether or not this effort had any tangible outcomes.
Stern in 2022 famous the Biden-Harris administration additionally supported marriage equality efforts in nations the place activists stated they have been doable by means of laws or the judicial course of.
Brittney Griner in December 2022 returned to the U.S. after Russia launched her in change for a convicted arms supplier. The lesbian WNBA star had been serving a nine-year jail sentence in a penal colony after a court docket earlier that yr convicted her on the importation of unlawful medicine after Russian customs officers discovered vape canisters containing hashish oil in her baggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
The State Division in 2022 started to problem passports with an “X” gender marker.
The Biden-Harris administration in response to the signing of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act sanctioned officers and eliminated the nation from a program that permits sub-Saharan African nations to commerce duty-free the U.S. Harris throughout a 2023 press convention with then-Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, spoke about LGBTQ rights.
Chantale Wong, the U.S. director of the Asian Growth Financial institution, in 2022 grew to become the primary overtly lesbian girl ambassador. David Pressman, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Hungary, and Scott Miller, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, are two of the opposite American ambassadors who Biden nominated which are homosexual.
Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2021 appointed former U.S. Ambassador to Malta Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley because the State Division’s first chief variety and inclusion officer.
U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who chairs the Senate Overseas Affairs Committee, criticized the State Division’s DEI efforts throughout Rubio’s affirmation listening to.
“The Biden administration typically undercut efficient overseas coverage by inserting ideological and political necessities into the material of personnel selections and coverage execution,” stated Risch.
“Moderately than making hires or promotions based mostly on advantage and effectiveness, the division created new variety, fairness, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) necessities that distracted from this mission, undermined morale, and created an unfair and opaque course of for promotions and efficiency evaluations,” he added. “Fealty to progressive politics grew to become the benchmark for fulfillment. As we glance round the US that view is diminishing in a short time amongst even massive progressive cooperations.”
