The Trump Administration implemented a new policy on Monday which denies visas to the same-sex domestic partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations employees. This reverses a policy put in place by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009. The Administration will now only grant visas to same-sex partners if they are legally married.
The Trump Administration argues that this policy brings the treatment of same-sex couples in line with the treatment of opposite-sex couples and is more in keeping with the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. The United States only issues visas to the spouses of opposite-sex couples and not domestic partners, so the new policy brings treats same-sex couples equally.
The United Nations issued a circular in September from the US mission to the UN explaining both the rationale and the implications of the new policy. They informed diplomats and employees with same-sex domestic partners on G-4 non-immigrant visas that they will have to be legally married in order to stay in the U.S. They have until the end of the year to comply or leave for their home country.
Opponents of the new policy argue that this places a hardship on same-sex couples from countries that either criminalize homosexuality, do not recognize the validity of gay marriages, or only have civil unions. They say this forces the partners of UN…
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