The administration is kicking off a global effort to end the criminalization of homosexuality, NBC News is reporting.
The campaign, aimed at dozens of nations where it is illegal to be gay, is being led by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who is the highest-profile, openly gay person in the Trump administration, according to the network news.
It is launching Tuesday evening in Berlin, where the U.S. embassy is flying in LGBT activists from throughout Europe for a strategy session. Most of the efforts will be concentrated on nations is the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean, NBC News reported.
“It is concerning that, in the 21st century, some 70 countries continue to have laws that criminalize LGBTI status or conduct,” said a U.S. official involved in organizing the event.
Helping spark the efforts was a recent execution by hanging of a gay man in Iran.
“This is not the first time the Iranian regime has put a gay man to death with the usual outrageous claims of prostitution, kidnapping, or even pedophilia,” Grenell wrote in an opinion piece for Bild. “And it sadly won’t be the last time. Barbaric public executions are all too common in a country where consensual homosexual relationships are criminalized and punishable by flogging and death.”
The move could help the U.S. and Europe reach agreement on Iran. But it does risk exposing close allies, including Saudi Arabia, who are also vulnerable on the issue, the network news said.
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