“To think that discrimination of any kind will be condoned or tolerated in a Trump administration is simply absurd," a Donald Trump spokesman said. | AP Photo Gay diplomats cling to signs of hope under Trump

When Tony Perkins, the firebrand leader of the conservative Family Research Council, recently urged President-elect Donald Trump to expel State Department “activists” promoting LGBT rights overseas, gay and lesbian members of the diplomatic corps felt a sense of dread.

But then a Trump aide quickly dismissed Perkins’ mid-December demand. According to The Washington Blade, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said: “To think that discrimination of any kind will be condoned or tolerated in a Trump administration is simply absurd.” Miller’s comment was so definitive that the State Department itself highlighted it.


In the weeks since, LGBT members of the Foreign Service have clung to Miller’s words as a sign that they will not see the extraordinary gains they’ve made under President Barack Obama completely vanish once Trump takes office. On Monday, in the latest manifestation of the Obama approach, Secretary of State John Kerry issued an official apology to past State Department employees fired or discriminated against due to their sexual orientation.

But despite Miller's seemingly unequivocal statement, many LGBT employees worry that the State Department will scale back its overseas work on gay rights issues under Trump. The concern stems partly from the fact that although Trump himself appeared to be generally gay friendly during his presidential run, Vice President-elect Mike Pence is a staunch Christian conservative with a record of opposing gay rights.

“It seemed like sometimes the candidate and his running mate were not singing from same sheet of music,” a gay State Department employee said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to press.

Trump’s choice of Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, as secretary of state, has added to the uncertainty. Tillerson is a devout Christian who helped the Boy Scouts of America open their ranks to gays. But his former company’s approach to LGBT issues has not impressed activists; it wasn’t until 2015 that ExxonMobil included sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy, and critics contend that was because the company was reacting to Obama’s executive order requiring federal contractors to protect gays and lesbians.

“Tillerson is no profile in courage,” said David Stacy, government affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group. He added: “Republican administrations have generally de-prioritized human rights and have been focused more on security issues and economic issues. And of course we’re worried about what the LGBT piece of that is.”

Under Obama, protecting the LGBT community has been a priority across the federal government. (Obama's tenure also will be remembered in part for the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.) However, the Obama administration went beyond U.S. borders with its LGBT policies even at the risk of offending some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and certain African states, where gays and lesbians face draconian laws.

Family Research Council leader Tony Perkins recently urged Donald Trump to expel State Department “activists” promoting LGBT rights overseas. | Getty

Obama issued a presidential memorandum directing that all U.S. agencies that work overseas promote and protect the rights of gays and lesbians. His administration also has supported gay-friendly resolutions and other public statements in forums such as the United Nations. Along with other countries, the State Department helped launch the Global Equality Fund, which provides money to civil society groups to help gays, lesbians and others. Thanks to Obama, same-sex couples can now obtain U.S. passports under the names recognized by their individual states.

In 2015, the State Department named a special envoy to help promote the human rights of the LGBT community around the world. The envoy, Randy Berry, has stressed that his priority isn't to convince every country to allow same-sex marriage. Rather, it's been more about lobbying other governments to stop the harassment and killing of gays, lesbians and others who fall under the LGBT umbrella. Thus the emphasis on "human rights" as opposed to just "gay rights."

Trump transition aides did not respond to a request for comment about their plans on LGBT issues — whether, for instance, they will keep the special envoy position. But they have not indicated they plan a roll-back of LGBT initiatives.

LGBT activists acknowledged that it's possible such issues might get a lower profile, not least because of the outrage of people such as Perkins and other conservatives important to Trump's base. Still, they hope that the Trump administration understands how important the U.S. example is for gays and lesbians struggling overseas.

"People around the world are looking to us for that leadership," said Bryan Dalton, a retired diplomat who 25 years ago helped start GLIFAA, an organization representing LGBT employees of U.S. foreign affairs agencies.

The president-elect has said that same-sex marriage is "settled law," meaning he doesn't want to fight that battle all over again. For that alone, he's earned some fans in the LGBT community.

"The American people are just tired of politicians who just say what they think people want to hear but never follow through. With Trump I think you’re going to have the follow through," said Joseph Murray, an administrator of LGBTrump, a social media-based group of LGBT activists backing the real estate mogul. He and others dismissed concerns about Pence, insisting that it is Trump who will set foreign policy, not the veep.

Some observers, meanwhile, have been struck by Trump’s linking of gay rights to the fight against Islamist extremism.

During his speech at the Republican National Convention, Trump mentioned the deadly mass shooting in June at an Orlando gay nightclub. The attack was carried out by a Muslim man apparently inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group. “As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology,” the president-elect said.

While members of the LGBT community on the one hand were pleased that Trump would call out extremist ideology that threatens them, they also are aware that Trump has terrified many ordinary Muslims who view him as anti-Islam, not just anti-extremism. Some pointed out that Trump’s call to stop the resettlement in the U.S. of Syrian refugees, whom he has cast as potential terrorists, will also mean barring LGBT Syrians who face extreme danger.

Michael Guest, a gay former diplomat who served as ambassador to Romania during the George W. Bush administration, stressed that it's still too soon to tell what exactly Trump will do. Still, he added, "None of the people that I know would want to see our community pitted against any other community."

Kerry's apology on Monday underscored how far the LGBT community has come.

Although he didn't mention it using the term, the outgoing secretary of state's statement referred in part to the so-called Lavender Scare, an effort in the 1950s and 1960s to purge federal employees believed to be gay. Hundreds of State Department employees lost their jobs as a result, with some being told they were security risks because their perceived sexual orientation made them vulnerable to blackmail.

"In the past — as far back as the 1940s, but continuing for decades — the Department of State was among many public and private employers that discriminated against employees and job applicants on the basis of perceived sexual orientation, forcing some employees to resign or refusing to hire certain applicants in the first place. These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today," Kerry said. "On behalf of the department, I apologize to those who were impacted by the practices of the past."