Tony Perkins, president of the
Christian conservative Family Research Council (FRC), has criticized
the Trump administration's global campaign to end the criminalization
of homosexuality.
The effort, a response to the recently
reported execution of a gay man in Iran, is being helmed by U.S.
Ambassador Richard Grenell, the highest-ranking openly gay person in
the Trump administration.
(Related: Trump
administration launches global push to decriminalize homosexuality.)
In a press release, Perkins, a staunch
opponent of LGBT rights, criticized the administration's plan.
“Our own criminal laws against
homosexual conduct were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003
in the case of Lawrence v. Texas. Despite what some on the
Left claim, we are not advocating for their return. But that does not
mean we should engage in 'cultural imperialism' by imposing policies
that were imposed upon us by our Court on other countries with
different cultures, traditions, and values,” Perkins said.
Perkins claimed that former President
Barack Obama's attempts to advance “an LGBT agenda around the world
and in the United Nations” damaged “our relations with many
countries.”
“The Trump administration should be
ending such efforts, not making them a priority.”
“Let's find common ground in calling
for an end to all forms of physical violence against homosexuals –
but refrain from imposing the values of the sexual revolution on the
rest of the world,” Perkins added.
Consensual sex between two people of
the same sex is illegal in dozens of Middle Eastern, African and
Caribbean nations.