Trump Administration Forces UN Employees to Marry Their Same-Sex Partners or Face Deportation

President Donald Trump’s administration has announced it will no longer be issuing visas to the same-sex partners of UN employees, unless they get married.

A spokesperson for the State Department told NBC Newsthe decision was made to “help ensure and promote equal treatment” between straight and same-sex couples.

This new policy blatantly ignores that of the 193 member states of the UN only 25 of them have legalised same-sex marriage, 69 of them still criminalise homosexuality, and several still inflict the death penalty as punishment. For many LGBT+ members of the UN being married is not an option.

“The problem with the new policy is that it doesn’t take into consideration the fact that LGBTI people still face a very challenging global environment,” said UN human rights official Fabrice Houdart.

He added that getting married was “something that is, in a way, more significant than entering a same-sex partnership for reasons that are not related to practical reasons, but reasons like: staying in the closet at home or facing gigantic penalties at home for being in a same-sex relationship.”

Foreign Policy magazine estimates at least 10 current UN employees in the US will be affected by this change.

Keep up to date with the latest myGnews

LGBT professionals, LGBT Graduates, LGBT professional network, LGBT professional events, LGBT networking events, LGBT Recruitment, LGBT Friendly organisations, LGBT Friendly companies, LGBT jobs