International
Biden marks Pride Month with memorial, LGBTQ envoy
AFP
Joe Biden marked Pride Month with joyful optimism and somber reflection Friday as the US president named an LGBTQ rights envoy and created a national memorial marking the deadliest tragedy to hit the country’s gay community.
“Pride is back at the White House,” Biden told a group of gay rights activists, transgender military service members and youth, and officials during a commemoration of the month that celebrates gay life in America.
He appointed advocate Jessica Stern as special envoy for LGBTQI+ rights, in a move aimed at increasing global awareness and acceptance of the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities.
Currently the executive director of OutRight Action International — a group which advocates for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people around the world — Stern in her new role will be attached to the State Department.
She will play a “vital” role working with like-minded governments and civil society organizations to uphold dignity and equality for everyone, the White House said in a statement.
The LGBTQ envoy position, created under president Barack Obama, was left vacant under his successor Donald Trump.
While Biden expressed his own pride in leading what he called the most pro-LGBTQ-equality administration in US history, “our work is unfinished,” he said.
“When a same-sex couple can be married in the morning, but denied a lease in the afternoon for being gay, something’s still wrong.”
Biden was joined by Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay member of a presidential cabinet.
“There have been great leaps forward in this country,” Buttigieg said.
Washington, United States | AFP | Friday 6/25/2021 – 16:41 UTC-6 | 443 words
UPDATES WITH PRIDE MONTH EVENTS AT WHITE HOUSE, ADDS QUOTES
Joe Biden marked Pride Month with joyful optimism and somber reflection Friday as the US president named an LGBTQ rights envoy and created a national memorial marking the deadliest tragedy to hit the country’s gay community.
“Pride is back at the White House,” Biden told a group of gay rights activists, transgender military service members and youth, and officials during a commemoration of the month that celebrates gay life in America.
He appointed advocate Jessica Stern as special envoy for LGBTQI+ rights, in a move aimed at increasing global awareness and acceptance of the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities.
Currently the executive director of OutRight Action International — a group which advocates for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people around the world — Stern in her new role will be attached to the State Department.
She will play a “vital” role working with like-minded governments and civil society organizations to uphold dignity and equality for everyone, the White House said in a statement.
The LGBTQ envoy position, created under president Barack Obama, was left vacant under his successor Donald Trump.
While Biden expressed his own pride in leading what he called the most pro-LGBTQ-equality administration in US history, “our work is unfinished,” he said.
“When a same-sex couple can be married in the morning, but denied a lease in the afternoon for being gay, something’s still wrong.”
Biden was joined by Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay member of a presidential cabinet.
“There have been great leaps forward in this country,” Buttigieg said.
“But there are reminders everywhere about what it looks like to move backward, not just in shocking acts of violence like the Pulse shooting that this country now rightly commemorates, but in the everyday grind of politics as rights and equality come up for debate.”
Buttigieg was referring to Orlando’s Pulse gay nightclub, scene of a horrific attack in which 49 people were murdered by a gunman who swore allegiance to the Islamic State.
Biden declaring the Pulse location “hallowed ground,” earlier Friday signed into law a measure that designates the nightclub as a national memorial.
“Just over five years ago the Pulse nightclub, a place of acceptance and joy, became a place of unspeakable pain and loss,” Biden said. “We’ll never fully recover, but we’ll remember.”
The June 12, 2016 rampage shocked the nation and the LGBTQ community in the middle of pride month.
Congress unanimously passed the Pulse memorial bill, in a rare example of bipartisanship in Washington.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links
A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”
The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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