Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday apologized for the State Department’s past discrimination against LGBTI employees, calling for a renewed commitment to “diversity and inclusion for all our employees.”
“In the past – as far back as the 1940s, but continuing for decades – the Department of State was among many public and private employers that discriminated against employees and job applicants on the basis of perceived sexual orientation, forcing some employees to resign or refusing to hire certain applicants in the first place,” Kerry said in a statement. “These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today.”
The State Department head said he appointed the first ever Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons as part of the Obama administration’s effort to promote LGBTI rights globally.
This effort has come under scrutiny by some individuals associated with the next administration. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and an ally of Donald Trump, has called for Kerry’s successor to reverse the Obama administration’s effort to “export the LGBTQ agenda globally” through the State Department.
The employer of Trump’s secretary of state nominee, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, has faced scrutiny in the past for its record on gay rights. The oil giant eliminated a policy preventing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in 1999. It only reintroduced protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 2015, after President Barack Obama issued an executive order requiring companies that contract with the federal government to protect LGBTI workers from discrimination.
It’s what the Democratic Party does best - apologize.
What’s next, the pizza delivery guy? Security made him wait all the time.
Trump: What a loser. No Apology needed, ever. No Gays, Trans or women will work in any capacity in my govt. Just White Males.
I am sorry, but this is not at the top of my list of State’s sins in the Obama years. I would like an apology for (1)the awful job State did in Iran negotiations, where they looked like, and I think were, on their news asking for a deal; its utter inability to get the Chinese and Russians to go along with meaningful sanctions against North Korea for building bombs; (3) for not getting Obama to bomb Syria, like Kerry wanted him to; (4) for allowing the NATO alliance to degenerate into a sniffling mess.; (4) foe allowing Susan Rice to go on air within 24 hours of the Benghazi attack with a story they had no idea was true or not. Worrying about who goes to what bathroom was yet another thing that lost us the election in paces like MI and PA. I am with Bernie— this is just not the most important thing we have to worry about in the moment.,
And just wait till later; LGBT’s, non-whites, progressives, etc.; the crackers are taking over.
Wow – a lot to unpack there harry.
Kerry was apologizing for decades of discrimination – not for what you consider the “sins” of the Obama years. Acknowledging the rampant past discrimination will perhaps make it a little harder for Tillerson to re-instate it.
“Worrying about who goes to what bathroom was yet another thing that lost us the election in paces like MI and PA” – must be lovely to have the privilege of reducing the real discriminatory harm to real people as a “bathroom” issue.