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.)