Democrats call on Biden to lift order banning embassy staff from talking about same-sex marriage / LGBTQ nation

The White House lights up in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court’s opinion legalizing same-sex marriage in all fifty states on June 26, 2015Photo: Shutterstock

Over 60 House Democrats wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding that the Biden administration lift the ban preventing embassy workers from discussing same-sex marriage.

The department’s official policy, according to Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Secretary Scott Busby, is not to “advocate for or against gay marriage abroad.”

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“We are not asking the State Department to talk about marriage in all countries or contexts,” the representatives wrote. “But we ask the department to provide US personnel with the opportunity to stand up for our values ​​and the dignity of our LGBTQI families at appropriate times when the power of our example could make a significant difference.”

The policy came “from a good place,” according to Mark Bromley, chairman of the Council for Global Equality, but it is now woefully outdated.

“It might have made sense 20 years ago, but now we are at a point where there are countries where the United States speaking out and explaining our own path to marriage equality might do the difference”, Bromley told NBC News.

The push is led by members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and includes Representative David Cicillin (D-RI), one of the few gay members of Congress. Congressman appointed LGBTQ Nation‘s “Hero Defending Democracy” this year after readers picked him as one of our nation’s staunchest freedoms. Cicillin also acted as impeachment official during Trump’s second Senate trial.

Democrats admit some countries “are not on the verge” of legalizing marriage equality, but “where marriage is a significant public issue overseas, we hope you would like your administration to do the right thing. side of the story ”.

“What embassies need to do first and foremost is listen to the LGBTQI community and ask them, ‘What can we do that would be helpful or not helpful? “Said Bromley, citing countries like Japan, Chile and the Czech Republic where US support could make a difference.

28 other countries recognize same-sex marriages. 71 countries criminalize homosexuality, including 11 where it is punishable by death.