The Log Cabin Republicans stood up for President Trump after he was accused Sunday by former Vice President Joseph R. Biden of undermining gay rights, blasting the Obama administration for supporting “oppressive regimes” hostile to homosexuality.
“Former Vice President Biden’s memory must be failing him, but LGBTQ individuals at home and abroad know they are safer now under President Donald Trump’s leadership than ever before,” said Log Cabin spokesman Charles Moran.
In a message for International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, Mr. Biden vowed to “reinvigorate and expand U.S. efforts to advance the human rights of LGBTQ+ people at home and abroad” while slamming the Trump administration’s record.
“Today, many LGBTQ+ people in the United States live in fear, and LGBTQ+ activists in other countries, who are often fighting desperately for their rights and personal safety, are no longer sure that the United States is their friend and ally,” Mr. Biden said in a post on Medium.
He said the Trump administration was “giving safe harbor” to hate, citing the requirement that military personnel serve in accordance with their biological sex, and “failing to address the epidemic of violence against transgender people, among other odious policies.”
A December analysis by Kentucky State University professor Wilfred Reilly found that the transgender murder rate is well below the national average.
Log Cabin cited the Trump administration’s naming of U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest-level openly gay presidential appointee in U.S. history, who joined U.S. Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft last year in calling out the 69 nations that criminalize homosexuality.
“President Trump and his administration has put the world on notice that criminalization of homosexuality is not in line with American values and there will be consequences for allies and foes who violate basic human rights,” Mr. Moran said. “This stands opposite of the Obama-Biden administration who openly supported regimes with the worst human rights abuses.”
Log Cabin responds to Biden’s [D-DE] attacks on Trump administration LGBTQ progress https://t.co/bAllm78L9z
— Georgia Log Cabin (@GeorgiaLogCabin) May 17, 2020
Mr. Biden said that the Obama administration “took unprecedented steps to ensure that our government delivered real progress on the promise of equality, both at home and abroad.”
“From signing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law, to repealing ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ to supporting marriage equality, we fought to advance the civil liberties of LGBTQ+ people in the United States and, for the first time ever, established the advancement of LGBTQ+ equality as a foreign policy goal,” Mr. Biden said.
Under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, however, the Obama administration sent $150 billion to “one of the world’s worst offenders on gay (and human) rights,” Log Cabin said.
“I’m not sure what reality Joe Biden is living in, but it’s not one based on any kind of accomplishments he can take credit for,” Mr. Moran said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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