Hilary Clinton gave an amazing speech this week, and the U.S. took an amazing stand for Civil Rights and Human Rights this week. Secretary of State Clinton was amazing (she should've been President). She said that the U.S. would not be giving a lot of aid to countries that didn't recognize gay rights as human rights- and will
potentially steer billions of dollars in US aid toward countries and
programs that protect rights while expanding efforts to protect gay and lesbian refugees.
AMAZING: This would NOT HAPPEN UNDER A GOP ADMINISTRATION!!! -rob
The US took a groundbreaking step on global LGBT rights Tuesday,
joining the UK in tying foreign aid to governments’ protection of sexual
minorities, raising the stakes in the increasingly globalized battle
over gay rights.
The Obama Administration’s sweeping initiative —which will
potentially steer billions of dollars in US aid toward countries and
programs that protect rights while expanding efforts to protect
LGBT refugees
— was announced ahead of Human Rights Day. The timing reinforced a
now-common refrain that has been spoken, chanted and shouted by rights
activists around the world for decades: Gay rights equal human rights.
President Obama issued an official memorandum
“directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that US diplomacy and
foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT
persons,” while
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the American
position clear to diplomats from around the world gathered at the United
Nations in Geneva: "Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are
gay rights."
America overwhelmingly remains the world’s largest provider of
official development assistance, and the UK is the fourth-largest.
Although the US State Department has worked diligently
behind the scenes
to promote LGBT rights and cultural awareness via its embassies around
the world, the agency has never before made such an overt move. Together
the two powers have created a united front in a battle that has rapidly
escalated in the past 10 years.
ENCOURAGING: From the Netherlands’ legalization of same-sex marriage in 2001 to
India’s decriminalization of homosexuality in 2009, many of the world’s
laws have changed even if longstanding cultural practices and religious
beliefs have not.
For some LGBT rights supporters, the irony of Obama and Clinton’s
message is that the US is not typically considered one of the most
progressive countries for legal protections of LGBT rights. Since 1996,
the federal Defense of Marriage Act has defined marriage as a
heterosexual union, and just six states grant same-sex marriage
licenses.
And of course,
anti-gay bullying remains a corrosive and sometimes
fatal cancer on society, while many communities have saved no place at
the table for the gay, the trangendered or the intersex. Political
leaders like
Rick Santorum have continued to frame gay relationships as threatening to American society.
At the same time,
public support for gay rights is on the rise and
polls at over 50 percent. The US military ended its Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell policy in September, and even anti-gay activists have conceded that
America is moving toward a society that protects its LGBT population.
In October,
UK Prime Minister David Cameron
told a meeting of Commonwealth leaders that future British aid would be
contingent on gay rights protections, drawing livid responses from
several African leaders seen as targets of Cameron’s remarks.
"This is an issue where we are pushing for movement,” Cameron said,
just weeks after throwing his support behind a new LGBT equality group
called The Kaleidoscope Trust. “We are prepared to put some money behind
what we believe.”
TOO BAD FOR THESE IGNORANT, BACKWARDS COUNTRIES:
Leaders of countries including Uganda, Nigeria and Zimbabwe — where
homosexuality is widely considered “un-African” and remains illegal
— called Cameron out on his proclamation.
Ugandan presidential adviser John Nagenda said that Ugandans, who
have gained a global reputation for creating an anti-gay climate since
2009, were “tired of these lectures” and were not to be treated like
“children.”
