As Twitchy reported, a 13-year-old U.S. citizen living in the West Bank was stabbed to death in her bed this week by a Palestinian intruder whose mother praised him as a courageous martyr. And overnight, 20 hostages (including a U.S. citizen) and two police officers were killed by Islamic terrorists who took hostages at a café in Bangladesh.
The White House is still featuring a tweet about climate change pinned to the top of its feed, but Secretary of State John Kerry was busy this week tackling another global threat to the international community, and the fight was a success.
.@JohnKerry welcomes #GlobalLeadership w/ partners who led #HRC32 resolution on sexual orientation & gender identity pic.twitter.com/UJBxejMVkJ
— IO Bureau @ State (@State_IO) June 30, 2016
The U.S. Mission in Geneva, Switzerland described the passage of the resolution as “a rainbow of joy.” There were some holdouts, though, with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kenya, and Bangladesh among them.
Rainbow of joy at #HRC32 following landmark #HRC32 decision to create first @UN Expert on #SOGI. #HumanRights #LBGT pic.twitter.com/GZYwhYqYtT
— U.S. Mission Geneva (@usmissiongeneva) July 1, 2016
There’s no denying that of all of the Obama administration’s No. 1 priorities in the president’s final term, those related to the LGBT community are receiving special attention — not bad considering the president only evolved on gay marriage after his election. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Thursday, the same day that the UN resolution passed, that the Pentagon is dropping its ban on transgender troops.
The UN resolution creates an independent expert on violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI. In a press release, Kerry said that “the recent, horrific attack in Orlando reminds us that we are never far from the latest example of violence and hatred perpetuated against LGBT persons” … by some unnamed antagonist with motives we don’t dare assume.
.@JohnKerry’s full statement on #HRC32 action today to create an expert to address challenges facing #LGBT persons https://t.co/6wmY6H2Xu9
— IO Bureau @ State (@State_IO) June 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/kevinlebo/status/748673094135517184
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