A memo circulated at the United Nations’ headquarters in July about a controversial new policy on U.S. visas, and as USA Today reported, it’s now taken effect.
President Donald Trump’s administration began denying visas to the unmarried, same-sex partners of foreign diplomats and officials and employees of the United Nations this week — making marriage a requirement to be eligible for a visa.
The policy was made effective Monday.
It comes despite the fact that the majority of countries do not recognize same-sex marriage and many same-sex couples face prosecution in their own countries…. The policy shift gives the same-sex partners of foreign diplomats and U.N. workers until the end of the year to get married or leave the country.
Samantha Power, the United States’ ambassador to the U.N. in the Obama administration, described the change as “needlessly cruel and bigoted.” She added that of the institution’s 193 member nations, only 12% allow same-sex marriages.
The USA Today report also noted, “Those who marry in the USA to secure their visa status could face criminal proceedings once they return to their home nations.”
As regular readers may recall, there was an odd point in the 2016 campaign, shortly after the Orlando nightclub massacre, in which Trump insisted that LGBT voters, en masse, should move to the right and vote Republican. Trump, in apparent seriousness, said he, not Hillary Clinton, would be the “better friend” of the “LBGT” [sic] community. Just two days after the Orlando shooting, Trump added, “Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you.” Anthony Scaramucci, during his exceedingly brief stint as the White House’s communications director, declared last year that Trump “is most pro-LGBTQ rights [president] in history. Why’s that story not written in mainstream media?” Yeah, it’s quite the mystery, isn’t it?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
