Ambassador Ric Grennell Calls On 69 Countries that Criminalize Homosexuality to Expand LGBT Protections
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U. S. Ambassador to Germany, openly gay Ric Grinnel and the American Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft called out 69 countries where being LGBT is a criminal offense and in some cases call for the death penalty.
According to Fox News: In a special meeting sponsored by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, and American Amb. Kelly Craft to the United Nations joined other diplomats and human rights activists to bring attention to the criminalizing gay people by dozens of UN member states.
“Individual men and women around the world have faced—and continue to face—punishment and even death, specifically because of their sexual orientation,” Craft said. “This is a wrong we should seek to right, and it is a wrong I am personally committed to helping right.”
No person should be harmed, tortured or killed because of their sexual orientation, yet at least 69 countries criminalize homosexuality. Our event today at the @UN showed our commitment to defending human dignity & partnering with #LGBTQ groups to decriminalize homosexuality. pic.twitter.com/HZo6nw8GWM
— Archive: Ambassador Kelly Craft (@USAmbUN30) December 18, 2019
Grenell, a veteran Americal official who is openly gay, has pushed for greater protections for people targeted because of their sexual orientation.
He read aloud a list of nations that either outlaw homosexuality or persecute gay people through discrimination, throwing them in jail or death. Included on the list were Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jamaica, Kenya, Senegal, Cameroon Antigua, Barbuda, Syria and Yemen, among dozens of others.
Grenell acknowledged the effort will be complicated.
“There are no easy answers,” he said. “I’ve been in this room thousands and thousands of times, it feels good. But, this is the first stand-alone meeting on the decriminalization of homosexuality and the moment is not lost on me.”
