Blinken and his Russian counterpart talk about Brittney Griner

Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated this week that promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights around the world is a key part of US foreign policy.

“We are determined, starting with our boss, the president, that the United States will be a champion of these rights around the world and a defender of rights when under siege,” Blinken said Wednesday during a panel discussion with six LGBTQ and intersex journalists at the State Department. “Unfortunately, this is something that we see, you know very well, being the case too often in too many places: basic human rights, out of reach, under threat, active rollback in many places. And for this reason, we try to focus all our missions in our embassies as well as senior officials here on the challenges that we see.

The Washington Blade is among the media the State Department invited to the roundtable, which was the first time a secretary of state sat down with a group of LGBTQ and intersex journalists during Pride Month. Jessica Stern, the United States’ special envoy for promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad, and State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who is gay, were among those who attended the round table with Blinken.

The roundtable took place a day after a Russian court again extended the detention of Brittney Griner, Phoenix Mercury center and two-time Olympic gold medalist, lesbian and married.

The State Department has determined that Russia “wrongfully detained” Griner at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in February after customs inspectors allegedly found hash oil in his luggage.

On May 14, Blinken spoke with Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner.

Officials from the Office of the President’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs and the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs met with Griner’s teammates on Monday to discuss his detention and efforts to secure his release.

“We’re very engaged with them,” Blinken said.

He added that the State Department is “very focused” on securing Griner’s release.

“We are determined to bring her home with Paul (Whelan, an American citizen who is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia after a court found him guilty of espionage) and for that matter, any American unjustly detained anywhere in the world,” Blinken said. “It’s something I’m personally focused on, and I want to leave it at that because it’s obviously an ongoing issue. But just know that it’s all about intense focus for us.

Trevor Reed, a former US Marine detained in Russia since 2019, returned to the United States in late April after the Kremlin released him in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian citizen who had been incarcerated in a US prison for drug trafficking .

“We’re working tirelessly day and night to bring Brittney back, to bring Paul home, to bring back every wrongfully detained American around the world,” Price said.

Price further described the decision to extend Griner’s detention until at least July 2 as “an injustice on top of a larger injustice.”

“She should be released,” Price said.

Griner was supposed to have his first phone call with his wife on Monday, the couple’s anniversary. But Cherelle Griner told the AP that all 11 attempted calls went unanswered at the US Embassy in Moscow. A State Department spokesperson said it “deeply regrets that Brittney Griner was unable to speak with his wife due to a logistical error.” Turns out the number Brittney Griner was asked to call doesn’t answer on weekends.

LGBTQI rights are part of ‘efforts to defend democracy’

In February 2021, President Biden signed a note committing the United States to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad as part of his administration’s overall foreign policy. Four months later, the White House appointed Stern, who previously served as executive director of OutRight Action International.

Blinken noted that the State Department began issuing passports with “X” gender markers in April. Blinken also pointed to the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution on free elections last November that specifically includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

Price during a May 2021 interview with The Blade said decriminalizing consensual same-sex sex is one of the Biden administration’s five priorities in its efforts to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights around the world. Stern recently noted “among a broader set of priorities, marriage equality is one element of our longstanding and ongoing commitment to advancing the rights of LGBTQI+ people.”

Blinken, during the roundtable, said that US efforts to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights around the world are “tied to our own efforts to defend democracy and human rights around the world.”

“This is an extremely serious time in the world,” Blinken said. “And in some ways, whether or not the rights of this community remain protected or defended and advanced or increasingly trampled on, it’s the canary in the coal mine because we know the rights of critical groups , ultimately everyone, so that’s another reason why we have to be so mindful of this.

“If more and more threats, acts, violence, repressive repression, laws are being leveled against the LGBTQ community, then you can almost bet it’s going to spread to other groups, other communities “, he added. “It’s indicative of an even bigger problem.”

The roundtable took place two days after the White House announced that Biden would visit Saudi Arabia in July.

The kingdom is one of the few countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.

“The president will raise rights issues at all levels when he is in Saudi Arabia, as he does in any country where we have or he has concerns,” Blinken said in response to Blade’s question. on the trip. “As he said the other day, his views on human rights have not changed. The challenge, and I think the responsibility we have, is to make sure that we most effectively advance the values ​​issues of this country.

Blinken said the United States welcomes the Saudi government’s efforts to fight extremism — 15 of the 19 men who carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks were Saudi citizens — and to counter Iran’s influence in the country. Middle East. Blinken also noted the country’s role in pursuing the ceasefire in Yemen.

“We have the opportunity…to maybe have something lasting in terms of ceasefires and more durable peace negotiations that profoundly advance our values, as well as our interests in upholding human rights. people of all kinds in Yemen who have suffered”. terribly,” he said.

“At the same time, we were very determined from day one to recalibrate the relationship, not to break it, to recalibrate it, because we feared that it would not be as effective as it could advance our own interests and our interests. own values,” Blinken adds. “So we took the time to do that.”

Blinken noted that the State Department used the “Khashoggi Ban” — named after Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 — to sanction more than 70 citizens. Saudis and others who targeted journalists, government critics and others in a third country. Blinken also told the Blade that he raises “individual cases where we have concerns, as well as systemic challenges” with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud during their meetings.

“We have real engagement on these issues,” Blinken said. “We have also seen positive advances in individual cases, but there are also systemic challenges.”

“It is far from saying that there are complex problems,” he added. “Human rights, including LGBTQI rights, is something that is at the heart of our foreign policy, but it’s not all of it. And it all has to be reflected in what we do and we have to make a judgment, which may be right or wrong, about how best to move these issues forward on this agenda.

Blinken told the Blade that he was “completely confident that everything I just told you will be reflected in what the president will do and say while in Saudi Arabia.”