Gay rights: The U.S.’s new foreign-policy goal

Should the U.S. promote gay rights around the world? asked Sandip Roy in HuffingtonPost​.com. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week announced that the Obama administration would henceforth make it a foreign-policy “priority” to promote tolerance for gays and lesbians, whom she described as an “invisible minority” in many countries, subject to being “arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed.” Clinton said that the administration’s efforts would include million-dollar grants for foreign gay-rights groups, offers of asylum for refugees, and an active policy of putting diplomatic pressure on nations that criminalize homosexual conduct. Some 76 countries now enforce laws against same-gender sex, with punishments including prison, flogging, and death. Some Arab and African leaders may not like that this message is coming from the West, Clinton conceded. But as she pointed out, “Being gay is not a Western invention; it is a human reality.”

The Americans ought to practice what they preach, said Gitau Warigi in the Nairobi, Kenya, Daily Nation. Perhaps Secretary Clinton should have saved her lecture for the 44 states that have refused to legalize same-sex marriage, or for the “rabidly anti-gay evangelical wing of the Republican Party.” In Africa, the majority of citizens do not want to see homosexuality normalized, which is why we have laws banning homosexual behavior. America can preach to us all it likes, but Africa’s response is: “Stuff it.” As well it should be, said Robert Knight in The Washington Times. Sexual behavior has “moral implications,” and U.S. foreign aid should be used to promote our national security—not “to force a radical agenda on the rest of the world.”

Forcing a gay-rights agenda clearly won’t work—especially in places like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda, said The Seattle Times in an editorial. But in the face of abuse and torture, “America cannot—should not—look the other way.” All Americans should “take pride” that our nation stands with persecuted gay men and women. “Hillary got it right,” said the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. As she pointed out, basic human rights “are not conferred by government,” but belong to each of us by birthright. Just as the U.S. opposes racial apartheid, religious discrimination, and the brutal subjugation of women in other lands, we must now stand with gay men and women everywhere. “Gay rights are human rights. It’s as simple as that.”

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