U.S. ambassador to Kenya: Every country must make ‘own decisions’ about LGBTQ rights
U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman earlier this month said every country “has to make their own decisions about” LGBTQ and intersex rights. “Every country has to make their own decisions about LGBTQ rights,” she said on March 3 while speaking to reporters in Kenya’s Kajiado County. “In the United States we probably have a different position, which is we view LBTQ rights as human rights, but we respect every country’s point of view on what position they want to take on this and we will respect that, but of course our democratic values and the way we feel is different and that’s okay.” “Countries have differences,” added Whitman. “We have a very strong working relationship over many years and I think the Kenyan government probably knows the U.S.
perspective, in fact I know they do, but we also respect Kenya’s right over this particular issue.” Kenya is among the countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized.
The Kenyan Supreme Court on Feb. 24 ruled the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, an LGBTQ and intersex rights group, must be allowed to register as a non-governmental organization.
The country’s groundbreaking intersex rights law took effect last July. President William Ruto last September told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour before he took office that LGBTQ and intersex rights are “not a big issue” in his country.
