Trump’s religious freedom advisor says US mustn’t criticize Zambia jailing gay men

Tony Perkins (Photo: Gage Skidmore, licensed via CreativeCommons_by_2.0)

Tony Perkins, the President of the homophobic Family Research Council and one of Donald Trump’s Religious Freedom commissioners, is at it again.

This time he has weighed in on the recent removal of the US ambassador to Zambia.

As previously reported by Queerty, in early December, the ambassador, Daniel Foote, criticized Zambia for sentencing two men to jail for 15 years for having gay sex.

Related: Zambia angered by US ambassador’s ‘horror’ at its treatment of gay men 

Foote suggested that the Zambian government would do better to tackle corruption in the country.

Zambia’s President reacted angrily, saying that he didn’t appreciate other countries interfering in Zambian affairs, and they could keep their aid money to themselves if they didn’t like the way Zambia was run.

Zambia receives hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid from the US: No less than $4billion over the last 15 years, much of which goes to helping fight HIV/AIDS.

Zambia President Edgar Lungu went on to say he was no longer prepared to work with Foote, which meant there was little point him remaining in his role.

Foote was subsequently recalled by Washington just before Christmas, with the Trump administration publicly stating it was “dismayed” by Zambia’s decision not to work with him any longer.

Perkins, who was appointed to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in May 2018, has now commented on the fallout in a blog post.

He suggests the Obama administration was….

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