Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City yesterday, where he said that he stands in solidarity with LGBTQ people. Just not American LGBTQ people.
Trump was discussing human rights advocacy when he brought up LGBTQ people.
Related: Trump White House starts scrubbing LGBTQ pages from State Department website
“As we defend American values, we affirm the right of all people to live in dignity,” he said. “For this reason, my administration is working with other nations to stop criminalizing homosexuality and we stand in solidarity with LGBTQ people who live in countries that punish, jail, or execute individuals based upon sexual orientation.”
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He did not specify which nations his administration was working with or any that are in the process of decriminalizing homosexuality.
Moreover, the Trump administration banned U.S. embassies around the world from flying the rainbow flag, denied visas to LGBTQ people trying to escape violence in Chechnya, tried to remove transgender-inclusive language from UN resolutions on violence, and multiple trans women seeking asylum in the U.S. have died in government custody.
Even though Trump appears to have lowered the bar on LGBTQ equality to simply not being killed or jailed by the government, he hasn’t put much effort into making that very low bar a reality while his administration has logged a lot of hours of work dismantling protections for LGBTQ people in health care, schools, employment, and other areas.
