A new report suggests that officials within the State Department vehemently objected to a keynote speech Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered at a pro-conversion therapy group’s event earlier this year.
Pompeo was invited by the Florida Family Policy Council to speak at its 5th Annual Policy Awards Dinner, which was held in Orlando on October 3. The Trump administration official was originally slated to give an in-person address followed by a $10,000-a-head meet-and-greet with the conservative lobby group’s supporters, but he was forced to appear at the event virtually following an outbreak of COVID-19 a now-infamous White House garden superspreader event.
But prior to the address, the Miami Herald reports that members of Pompeo’s team voiced concerns about the organization’s record on LGBTQ+ issues.
On its website, Florida Family Policy Council promotes resources that purport to assist individuals in “leaving the gay lifestyle,” indirectly referencing conversion therapy, the discredited practice of attempting to “cure” an LGBTQ+ person’s identity. The group goes onto claim that prohibitions against the harmful, dangerous practice — which are on the books in 20 states — seek to “disguise themselves as bans on ‘abuse’’’ but instead “place unconstitutional limits on freedom of speech.”
“So called ‘conversion therapy’ is an ideological term used to try and characterize ordinary therapeutic care in with abusive practices,” its webpage concludes.
Florida Family Policy Council also claims that basic protections for LGBTQ+ people are
“used as weapons to punish Christians,” refers to gender-affirming care for trans youth as “experimental procedures and permanent, life altering amputations,” and claims that LGBTQ+ hate crimes laws are akin to “Thought Crime laws.” Twenty-three states have inclusive statutes in place mandating harsher penalties for offenders who target victims based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Pompeo’s executive secretary, Lisa Kenna, “was alerted to the concerns” regarding the organization’s extreme anti-LGBTQ+ views and “attempted to mitigate fallout from the event,” according to the Herald. Several aides within the State Department are said to have filed their own complaints after viewing Florida Family Policy Council’s materials and were reportedly “appalled” when Pompeo ignored them.
A representative for State Department denied reports that Pompeo’s speech caused friction and rejected the idea that his appearance was in any way an endorsement of conversion therapy.
“The Secretary was asked to speak to this group about the mission of the State Department and he did,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “The Secretary believes that organizations like Florida Family Policy Council are entitled to hear from him on important national security policy matters. The Secretary was not made aware of any concerns with respect to speaking before this group given that other major leaders have addressed this event.”
Florida Family Policy Council has clarified that the subject of conversion therapy was not discussed at the gala nor in its conversations with Pompeo.
The controversy is just the latest in a long line of anti-LGBTQ+ actions on behalf of Pompeo’s State Department, however. Since the former CIA director took over for Rex Tillerson in 2018, he has pushed to rewrite the definition of human rights at the United Nations to exclude LGBTQ+ people. His office has also sought to deny citizenship to the children of same-sex couples born abroad, refused gender affirming passports to intersex people, and blocked U.S. embassies from flying rainbow Pride flags.
When Pompeo was tapped to the position by Donald Trump, LGBTQ+ advocates vociferously opposed his nomination. Critics cited his links to hate groups, opposition to same-sex marriage as a member of Congress, and 2015 remarks referring to homosexuality as “perversion.”
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