Posted: Jul 26, 2017 5:51 pm
He has done it again.
Luckily our government has to approve.
Gay rights opponent picked as ambassador to Netherlands by Trump
Nomination of Pete Hoekstra, one of Tea Party’s founders, raises eyebrows in first country to legalise gay marriage
A gay rights opponent who once appeared in a campaign advert that was accused of being racist and who has claimed that refugees pose a threat to Europe has been named as Donald Trump’s choice for US ambassador to the Netherlands.
The nomination of Pete Hoekstra, a former congressman and one of the founders of the conservative Tea Party movement, has raised eyebrows in the Netherlands, a bastion of liberal values and the first country in the world to legalise gay marriage.
The Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant observed that Trump had “put a Dutchman in the Netherlands – but it is a Dutchman from the Netherlands of the 50s”.
Hoekstra, who represented Michigan’s 2nd congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2011, was born in the Netherlands but left when he was three years old.
His nomination will need to be approved by the Dutch government and confirmed by the US Senate in order for him to take up the post.
Hoekstra has spoken out against gay marriage and as a congressman consistently voted to limit women’s right to abortion. He is also a strident supporter of the death penalty.
He caused a stir when running for the Senate in 2012 when he appeared in a campaign advert featuring a young Chinese women with a thick accent cycling by some rice fields thanking the US for borrowing heavily from her country.
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Luckily our government has to approve.