The United States joined Saudi Arabia, China, and ten other nations to vote against a United Nations resolution condemning the death penalty for, among other things, “same-sex relations.” As David Badash noted, “the resolution itself does not even condemn the use of the death penalty, but rather requests countries that have yet to ban the death penalty to ‘ensure that it is not applied on the basis of discriminatory laws’”:

The Trump administration, which has actively been unraveling LGBT advances in the U.S., does not appear to have explained its vote on the U.S. State Dept. website. The UN resolution asks countries "that have not yet abolished the death penalty to ensure that it is not imposed as a sanction for specific forms of conduct such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations."

The resolution—introduced by Belgium, Benin, Costa Rica, France, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia and Switzerland—still passed 27-13, but shamefully without any assistance from the United States. But remember, Donald Trump once tweeted that he will fight for LGBT Americans “while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.” I think we know who’s doing the threatening here, and it’s certainly not Hillary Clinton. The Washington Blade:

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley in April said the U.S. remains “disturbed” by the ongoing crackdown against gay men and lesbians in Chechnya. Caitlyn Jenner in July met with Haley at her office in New York. President Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia in May. He made no mention that consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death in the kingdom in a speech he gave in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. Trump has also not publicly commented on the ongoing crackdown against LGBT Chechens.

“Ambassador [Nikki] Haley has failed the LGBTQ community by not standing up against the barbaric use of the death penalty to punish individuals in same-sex relationships,” said HRC Global’s Ty Cobb. “While the U.N. Human Rights Council took this crucially important step, the Trump/Pence administration failed to show leadership on the world stage by not championing this critical measure. This administration's blatant disregard for human rights and LGBTQ lives around the world is beyond disgraceful.”

Homosexuality is illegal in over 70 countries, and in 13 of them, the penalty is death. And in this recent vote, the United States refused to condemn that. Former Obama official Susan Rice sounded off on Twitter: