Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) absolutely loves Donald Trump’s plan to gut the State Department’s budget by 28 percent because—get this—he claims they’ve been busy gaying up the world. No, really:
"I don't have any concerns with the cuts to the State Department," he told reporters Thursday. "As I understand it they had teams all over the world that were paid lavish amounts of money, and they weren't promoting America, they were promoting the LGBT agenda. That's not the State Department's role."
"I'm not sure 28 percent is enough to cut what's not promoting the best interest of the United States," he continued. "We went with teams into African countries and said, 'We'll help you with Boko Haram if you change your law to allow same sex marriage and abortion.'"
Gohmert—the poor man’s Steve King—has an ongoing obsession with LGBT people, once calling the fight to ensure trans people can use a restroom that matches their gender identity "symptoms of insanity." Last year, he argued that we would never intentionally send gay couples into space to start a new colony, because apparently that’s the kind of stuff Republican congressmen from Texas ponder.
As for Gohmert’s charge about State, TPM notes that the “department has just one special envoy in charge of promoting LGBT rights, a position that President Obama created and President Trump so far has retained even as other staff has been purged.” And, “contrary to Gohmert's characterization,” State isn’t busy promoting the new Cher tour, but instead assisting groups in more than 50 countries keeping LGBT people safe:
The office is not engaged in promoting same sex marriage, but in “building capacity to respond swiftly to violence against LGBTI persons” around the world.
Come to think of it, we could use some of that same protection here.