The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a bill that would allow the Biden administration to sanction foreign individuals who oppose LGBT “rights.”
The so-called Global Respect Act (GRA) cleared the House in a 227-206 vote Wednesday, with six Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
The GRA would empower the White House to impose visa bans on foreigners deemed responsible for or “complicit” in violations of “internationally recognized human rights” against people who identify as “LGBTQI.” The broadly-worded bill, which applies to private citizens, defines violations as “cruel and degrading treatment” and “flagrant denial” of the right to “liberty,” among other things.
The findings of the bill specifically take aim at laws in dozens of countries that prohibit sodomy and other homosexual activity, as well as “policies or laws that would further target LGBTQI individuals.” More than 70 nations, including much of Africa and the Middle East, currently ban homosexual acts.
Individuals sanctioned under the GRA and their immediate family would be unable to enter the United States and would be ineligible for U.S. visas. The bill would also require the U.S. State Department to designate a senior officer to track restrictions of “fundamental freedoms” “based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics.” And the measure urges the White House to “impose additional targeted sanctions” through existing means.
A Republican congressman, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, co-sponsored the bill with more than 70 Democrats. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine sponsored a Senate version.
Along with Fitzpatrick, the six House Republicans who voted for the GRA include Reps. John Katko and Tom Reed of New York, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Rep. Maria Salazar of Florida, and Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan.
The Biden White House released a statement endorsing the bill last week. The statement also celebrated the administration’s “historic actions” to advance “LGBTQI+ equality,” such as flying the “Pride” flag at U.S. embassies, and again called on the Senate to pass the radical Equality Act.
Parents, pastors in the crosshairs
Pro-family and religious freedom advocates have strongly criticized the Global Respect Act, warning that the bill would allow bureaucrats to target foreign Christians or other individuals who oppose the LGBT agenda abroad.
“The far Left frequently asserts that even the failure to affirm someone’s sexual orientation and gender identity is a denial of human rights,” wrote Arielle Del Turco of Family Research Council. “If that’s how the State Department would interpret the Global Respect Act, then foreign individuals such as pastors, teachers, judges, journalists, or private citizens voicing opinions rooted in their faith are at risk of being victimized by this bill.”
In Finland, a member of parliament and Christian, Päivi Räsänen, is facing jail time after tweeting a Bible verse that condemns homosexuality. “Given the United States’ longstanding commitment to promoting religious freedom abroad, it’s a no-brainer that U.S. diplomats such as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom should be speaking out on her behalf,” Del Turco said. “But if the Global Respect Act were passed, would she be sanctioned instead?”
Del Turco noted that individuals sanctioned due to the GRA could include officials in U.S.-allied nations, such as Poland, Hungary, and several African countries, “many of which are not human rights abusers but do hold to traditional beliefs on marriage and sexuality. This is sure to strain U.S. relations with allies and harm American foreign policy,” she said.
Joe Biden has previously smeared the freely-elected governments of Hungary and Poland – both NATO allies – as “totalitarian regimes.”
The two conservative countries are among around 30 with constitutions that explicitly exclude same-sex “marriage.” But the GRA could enable the White House to retaliate against those kinds of pro-family policies, in line with far-left United Nations expert opinions, according to the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam).
“UN experts have repeatedly accused parents, religious leaders, and governments of torture and incitement for their opposition to the homosexual/trans agenda. They have done so in official communications with governments from around the world…” C-Fam observed. With the GRA, Democrats and the Biden administration “may finally give teeth to those UN expert opinions,” C-Fam said.
During floor debate on the bill Wednesday, Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York warned that vague terms in the bill, like “cruel and degrading treatment,” could allow for prosecutions of free speech, religious exercise, and parental decision-making, C-Fam reported.
“Is a parent who rejects her minor child’s wish for a sex change operation complicit in cruelty?” Tenney asked…
“There are no safeguards in the bill that address these situations,” said the congresswoman, who blasted Democrats for rejecting an amendment by GOP Rep. Scott Perry that would have protected religious freedom, free speech, and parents’ rights.
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
Christians have often received the brunt of liberal demonization, due to the fact that Biblical morality runs in sharp contrast to the secular agendas of our world.
In Romans chapter one, Paul warns against the sin of homosexuality and, more specifically, the celebration of it as a rebellion against God.
The Bible tells us that the world in the last days would be like it was in “the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28). In Lot’s day, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, chiefly for the sexual immorality and homosexuality that the cities were given over to (Genesis 19, Jude 1:7).
It is this same reprobate mind that our society has fallen into, not in the celebration of sins alone (such as homosexuality, abortion, etc.) but also the attempt to force everyone, no matter their convictions, to celebrate and/or participate in such sins.
Many may be surprised to learn that the Bible warned of this rising hostility to Believers, specifically in the generation nearing the return of Christ.
2 Timothy 3 is an astonishing chapter that provides a list of characteristics that will permeate humanity in the “last days.”
Mike Golay, the Director of Operations of Behold Israel, referred to this chapter in a special message he delivered in Washington, stating:
“Did you know that the Bible, and even Christian literature written after the New Testament, predict that in the end times there will be a noticeable global spike in people’s character rotting? I am very sad to say that this world that we are living in now is really deteriorating fast into a rot that we have never seen before.”
Among other characteristics, 2 Timothy 3 describes a society in which “men of corrupt minds” would “resist the truth” and be “reprobate concerning the faith” (2 Timothy 3:1,8-9). Furthermore, we read that in the time prior to Jesus’ return, “all who live godly in Christ” will “suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, writing about the growing hostility towards Christians in our culture, wrote:
Right now, our spiritual enemy is desperate to separate Christians from the source of our strength — to force us to take our faith in Christ underground. But the minute we surrender to that temptation, the minute we downplay the word of God so as “not to offend,” we lose the very distinctive that makes unbelievers notice…
That doesn’t mean standing by those principles is easy. As the growing hostility toward religious freedom shows, we need to be prepared for conflict. Paul was. In his letter to the Ephesians, he made it very clear that we are to stand our ground, taking up the “whole armor of God.” Even this great man of God recognized that he needed help doing that in the face of opposition. “Pray for me that I will open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I would speak boldly as I ought to speak.”
Silence is not an option — it wasn’t then, and it can’t be now. We must speak the truth when people want to hear it — and even when they don’t.
