The Trump Administration Will Not Punish African Countries That Discriminate Against LGBTQ People

Mick Mulvaney, a former Republican lawmaker who is Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump administration, has made comments which imply that the Trump administration will not press countries to abolish their anti-LGBT laws.

He made the comments at the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, DC., during which he attacked the Obama administration for using taxpayer dollars to promote women’s rights and LGBTQ rights in Africa.

The Obama administration withheld aid to anti-LGBTQ countries like Uganda over its anti-homosexuality laws, and warned others, like Kenya, that discrimination would not be tolerated, telling Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2015: “When you start treating people differently, not because of any harm they’re doing to anybody, but because they are different, that’s the path whereby freedoms begin to erode and bad things happen.”

Mulvaney had this to say: “Our US taxpayer dollars are used to discourage Christian values in other democratic countries. It was stunning to me that my government under a 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.’ That is a different type of religious persecution that I never expected to see. I never expected to see that as an American Christian. There are a lot of people in this government who just want to see things done differently.”

He added: “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.”

Watch Mulvaney’s speech below: