The Trump administration instituted a new policy that will deny visas to unmarried, same-sex partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations officials and employees.
According to Foreign Policy magazine, the new policy would demand the couple be married for a partner visa to be granted. In most cases, same-sex marriage is criminalized in the country from which the diplomat hails.
Critics of the new policy are saying same-sex couples have different circumstances than straight couples and that the Trump administration is adding unnecessary penalties to homosexual couples. His administration fired back that the new rule is in line with the 2015 Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.S. The policy has supposedly leveled the playing field with reference to homosexual and heterosexual couples, since straight couples must be married to receive a partner visa.
Again, the conundrum is many of the countries do not allow same-sex marriages to start.
Robbie Gramer, a reporter for Foreign Policy Magazine, further elaborated on Twitter about “limited exceptions” stating,
“The US informed foreign governments “limited exceptions” are allowed in cases with diplomats from countries where it is illegal. But that government would have to provide documentation proving same-sex marriage was illegal & commit to accepting same-sex partners of US diplomats.”
This new policy reverses is the 2009 policy then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton enacted under former President Obama’s administration. Clinton granted permission to grant visas to same-sex partners of U.S. foreign diplomats as a part of President Obama’s Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination.
There are 10 U.N. employees in same-sex partnerships who must now marry by December 31 or they will have to leave the United States. In the countries where same-sex marriages are illegal, the couples face certain prosecution if they return to native countries.
According to Samantha Power via Twitter, only 12% of UN member states allow same-sex marriages.
There’s no logic or reason as to why the denial was implemented other than Trump’s consistently cruel and evil rampage of overturning all Obama-era policies, which were designed to help humankind.
