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Trump Keeps State Department's Top Envoy For LGBTI Rights

“I don’t think I can applaud it until I see what his mandate becomes in this administration."

Despite Rex Tillerson's questionable stance on gay rights, the Trump administration has opted to keep President Obama's top advocate for LGBTI rights at the State Department.

Randy Berry was named Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons in February 2015, and will continue his role, according to a State Department spokesperson on Monday.

“This is really surprising to me," GLAAD's Ross Murray told Foreign Policy. “I don’t think I can applaud it until I see what his mandate becomes in this administration. But Berry has been really effective in that job.”

Under Obama, the State Department was instrumental in advocating for LGBT rights across the globe, pressuring governments to be inclusive and providing more than $35 million to NGOs since 2011. In January, John Kerry issued an apology for the historical persecution of gays at State.

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

US President Donald Trump speaks to staff at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC, on January 25, 2017.Trump vowed to restore "control" of US frontiers as he moved Wednesday to fulfil his pledge to "build a wall" on the Mexican border, signing two immigration-related decrees and sounding a hardline tone. / AFP / NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

While Trump has targeted Muslims, Latinos and other immigrants, his perspective on the LGBT community is more muddied: A draft of an order legalizing religious discrimination against gay and trans people was circulated late last month, but was followed by an announcement by the White House that he would keep Obama's ban on anti-LGBT discrimination by federal contractors.

As FP points out, Trump has had no problem clearing house in Washington, and there are plenty of vacancies in other State Department offices.

Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, who seems to have the president's ear, has called on Tillerson to go back to the days of the “lavender scare” and fire all LGBT employees and allies at the State Department.

"The incoming administration needs to make clear that these liberal policies will be reversed and the ‘activists’ within the State Department promoting them will be ferreted out and will be replaced by conservatives.”

Tillerson, who was confirmed February 1, opposed adding LGBT-inclusive protections while CEO of ExxonMobil, but was instrumental in getting the Boy Scouts to lift its ban on gay scouts.

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