Important LGBT Pages are now missing
Moving at breath taking speed, the new Trump administration appears to be quickly moving to remove references to LGBT people and their rights from various websites.
On inaugural day, the official LGBT Rights page was erased from the official White House page. The same fate was met by ONAP, the Office of National AIDS Policy.
Now, it appears the purging has moved over the U.S. State Department. GPB conducted an audit of the site and has observed language on policies related to LGBT persons, including travel information, no longer appears on the site.
FYI: The page for U.S. LGBT Travelers going abroad still appears to still be active at this time active.
Missing are pages related to important LGBT policies and statements, including:
- Speeches specifically given to promote LGBT Human Rights. For example, a page that once houses Former Sec. of State John Kerry’s welcome to special envoy to commemorate LGBT Human Rights Envoy is now gone.
- Joint international statements affirming LGBT rights gone.
- Pages designed to promote gender equality gone.
- Pages that spoke out against mistreatment of LGBT persons internationally gone.
- Material on same sex marriage once housed on site gone.
- LGBT Page for travelers coming to America gone.
It is important to note that the apparent removal of these pages comes just roughly a month after Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council and strong supporter of Donald Trump urged the new president to purge take action against LGBT persons at the State Department.
Related: Tony Perkins urges LGBT purge at State Department
In fact, Mr. Perkins also is on record with urging the Trump Administration to fire LGBTQ employees. In a post published on December 15, 2016 appearing on the FRC website:
“These liberal policies will be reversed and the “activists” within the State Department promoting them will be ferreted out and will be replaced by conservatives who will ensure the State Department focuses on true international human rights like religious liberty which is under unprecedented assault.”
GPB continues to monitor the website but it appears Mr. Perkins wishes regarding removal of LGBT policy information and references have started to come true.
Currently, former Exon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson is the Trump administration’s current choice to be Secretary of State. He has yet to be confirmed at the time of this posting.
While it is possible some of these pages may be in the process of updating – the current situation is concerning.
