Last week, the United States was one of 13 countries from the United Nations Human Rights Council that voted against a measure condemning the use of the death penalty to punish LGBTQ people. Against. Really.
The resolution asks countries where the death penalty is legal not to apply it in a way that discriminates against certain groups of people, or punishes “specific forms of conduct such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery, and consensual same-sex relations.”
The measure thankfully still passed with the votes of 27 countries. The nations that voted not to pass it were Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
LGBTQ and human rights advocates condemned the U.S. for voting against the resolution. A statement from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) called U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and the Trump administration’s failure to champion the resolution “beyond disgraceful”:
Ambassador Haley has failed the LGBTQ community by not standing up against the barbaric use of the death penalty to punish individuals in same-sex relationships,” said Ty Cobb, director of HRC Global. “While the U.N. Human Rights Council took this crucially important step, the Trump/Pence administration failed to show leadership on the world stage by not championing this critical measure. This administration’s blatant disregard for human rights and LGBTQ lives around the world is beyond disgraceful.”
Responding to such criticisms, U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said during a 3 October press briefing that the much of the reporting on the United States’ position on the resolution had been misleading, and that despite appearances the U.S. “unequivocally condemns” the application of the death penalty to homosexuality, adultery, and religious offenses:
As our representative to the Human Rights Council said last Friday, the United States is disappointed to have voted against that resolution. We voted against that resolution because of broader concerns with the resolution’s approach in condemning the death penalty in all circumstances, and it called for the abolition of the death penalty altogether. We had hoped for a balanced and inclusive resolution that would better reflect the positions of states that continue to apply the death penalty lawfully, as the United States does. The United States unequivocally condemns the application of the death penalty for conduct such as homosexuality, blasphemy, adultery, and apostasy. We do not consider such conduct appropriate for criminalization.
Have we made America great yet? Is this what that looks like?