Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he brings up LGBTQI rights with his Saudi counterpart “invariably, in every conversation,” but defends President Joe Biden’s planned July visit to the kingdom — where homosexual acts carry the death penalty.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken describes the current backlash against LGBTQI communities as “a deadly serious time.” | Alex Wong/Getty Images
Speaking at the State Department’s first-ever briefing for LGBTQI reporters, Blinken told POLITICO that “we have real engagement” with Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud when he raises his LGBTQI-themed complaints. But he said human rights are only one part of America’s foreign policy and “everything has to be reflected in what we do.”
That group includes Brittney Griner, the out American basketball player whose imprisonment in Russia on drug smuggling chargesBlinken has now classified Griner as “wrongfully detained” — after a two-month legal process. Her case is part of a broader trend of American citizens being used as political pawns by autocratic regimes.
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