Trump Appoints First Openly Gay Person To A Cabinet-Level Position
President Trump has named Richard Grenell acting director of national intelligence, making him the first openly gay person to a Cabinet-level position. With this move, Trump also became the first president to give a member of the LGBT+ community such a high position within his administration.
Grenell acts as an ambassador to Germany and in 2019 lead a global effort to end the criminalisation of homosexuality in almost 70 countries where it is still illegal, after a gay man in Iran was reportedly hanged.
“Being gay is a death sentence in eight countries and criminalized in 70 more. LGBT status or conduct means arrest, imprisonment, and violence for people who are simply dating or falling in love. Governments that are Members of the United Nations have an obligation to protect, respect, and uphold the dignity and fundamental freedoms of their people,” he wrote.
Unfortunately, a year after this initiative, only Botswana has decriminalised homosexuality. It has been alleged that the efforts lead by Grenell, and the Trump administration in general, were just promises without significant plans for real change.
“It would be different if they were trying, but it's not even clear they are doing anything meaningful at all,” Charlotte Clymer, an HRC spokeswoman said, according to ‘The Hill’. “It is yet another case of the Trump-Pence White House making promises to LGBTQ people, even while they enable discrimination and violence against us at home and abroad.”
In the same month, this initiative was announced, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration the ability to enforce restrictions on trans people serving in the military.
Read related myGwork articles here:
Trump Administration’s Attempt To Discharge HIV-Positive Airmen Has Been Blocked For The Second Time
The Trump Administration Is Cancelling LGBT+ People On Governmental Websites
Keep up to date with the latest myGnews
