Tapped for State Department post, Brownback is avid proponent of so-called “religious exemptions”

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released the following background information on Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s anti-LGBTQ record after President Donald Trump announced his nomination for Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedoms at the U.S. State Department. If confirmed Gov. Brownback would lead the Office of International Religious Freedom, a previously non-politicized post created to “monitor religious persecution and discrimination worldwide” and “develop programs to promote religious freedom.”

Throughout his career, Brownback has imposed his anti-LGBTQ agenda on others. This included citing so-called “religious exemptions” to rescind discrimination protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity in Kansas and voting against LGBTQ hate crime protections. If approved, Gov. Brownback would bring his anti-LGBTQ record to an international stage.

This appointment comes as the Trump Administration continues to hold closed-door meetings with anti-LGBTQ activists at the White House and just days after Family Research Council President Tony Perkins announced on his radio show, Washington Watch, that possible “religious exemptions” executive orders would come as early as this week.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Gov. Sam Brownback’s Anti-LGBTQ Record

• Called marriage equality “radical social experimentation” and “a grave threat to our central social institution” as cosponsor for a federal marriage amendment to be added to the U.S. Constitution. 
• Claimed marriage equality is “harmful to the future of the Republic.”
• Said about marriage equality: “When you do these vast, social experiments–and that’s what this is, when you redefine marriage–they’re not done in isolation. They impact the rest of the culture around you. When you take the sacredness out of marriage, you will drive the marriage rates down.”
• Rescinded an executive order that protected Kansas state workers from discrimination, harassment, or job termination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Voted against LGBTQ hate crimes legislation, stating: “This is something we have got to fight against, that somehow that the thought is what the crime is, and that being moved into an agenda not allowing people to speak their beliefs about homosexuality.”
• Temporarily blocked the confirmation of a federal judge solely because she attended the commitment ceremony of an LGBTQ couple.
• Rejected President Obama’s federal guidance on transgender students using facilities that match their gender identity.
• Signed a so-called “religious freedom” law allowing groups at college campuses to exclude members based on religious beliefs without losing public funds.
• Claimed the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell ban was “good policy” and “the right thing for us to do in the military.”

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