Tony Perkins, president of the Family
Research Council (FRC), has cheered the Trump administration's
decision to deny visas to the partners of gay foreign diplomats and
United Nations employees.
According to The Washington Post,
the State Department will deny visas to the partners of such
employees unless they are married. The department said that those
already in the country have three months to marry or lose their
visas.
The policy is a reversal from the Obama
administration, which, under the leadership of then-Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, in 2009 defined family to include domestic
partners.
“The change in policy ensures
consistent treatment between opposite-sex partners and same-sex
partners by requiring that same-sex partners, like opposite-sex
partners, must marry to qualify for derivative diplomatic visas,” a
State Department official is quoted by the Post as saying.
Unlike heterosexual couples, gay and
lesbian couples can only marry in 27 countries, ABC News reported in
June.
In a press release, FRC President Tony
Perkins said that the policy was part of former President Barack
Obama's “obsession with LGBT activism.”
“No sooner had Hillary Clinton taken
over as secretary than the White House ordered her to use the agency
as a club to beat other nations into submission on sexual politics,”
Perkins wrote.
“Fortunately,” Perkins continued,
“the Trump administration has real respect for other nation's
beliefs – and Secretary [of State] Mike Pompeo's agency is proving
it.”
“Thank goodness for the Trump
administration, which has proven time and time again that its focus
is religious freedom and human rights for everyone – not special
rights for a select few,” added Perkins, who has close ties to
President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
The Family Research Council has been
labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
over its anti-LGBT rhetoric.
(Related: Groups
opposed to LGBT rights take part in State Dept. religious freedom
conference.)