Dear Conservatives,
Next week, Congress could vote on the Global Respect Act, a bill that would enshrine "special LGBT rights" into American foreign policy at the expense of protecting real human rights abuses. The bill is ideologically driven, unnecessary, diverts attention from international crises, and could harm our relationships with allies by targeting them with sanctions for having pro-family and pro-religious liberty policies.
This bill would enable visa bans against foreign individuals accused of violating human rights; however, the Global Magnitsky Act is stronger and already enables the U.S. government to issue such bans. The Global Magnitsky Act allows sanctions against foreign persons responsible for human rights violations against anyone, yet H.R. 3485 only targets those accused of violating “LGBT rights.”
This bill could be construed to infringe upon the freedom of speech and religion for those who maintain sincerely-held religious beliefs about marriage or sexuality. Religious freedom is not only foundational to America, but it is also foundational to U.S. human rights advocacy abroad. The bipartisan International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 was passed to elevate the status of religious freedom in our foreign policy. We should not be doing anything to jeopardize America’s tradition of advocating for religious freedom around the world. “LGBT rights” are simply not in the text of foundational human rights treaties or other proper sources of international human rights law, and the United States has no business in pressuring other countries to adopt a leftist social agenda.
The bill could further be used to go after foreign actors that promote pro-life policies. The United Nations Human Rights Council has already determined that criminalizing abortion can be viewed as “degrading” treatment.
Please reach out to your representative today to let them know you oppose the Global Respect Act.
Sincerely,
Your Friends at FRC Action
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