Homosexuality

Huffington Post wrote:Obama Administration To Consider Gay Rights When Allocating Foreign Aid

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is announcing a wide-ranging effort to use U.S. foreign aid to promote rights for gays and lesbians abroad, including combating attempts by foreign governments to criminalize homosexuality.

In a memorandum issued Tuesday, President Barack Obama directed U.S. agencies working abroad, including the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, to use foreign aid to assist gays and lesbians who are facing human rights violations. And he ordered U.S. agencies to protect vulnerable gay and lesbian refugees and asylum seekers.

"The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons is a global challenge, and one that is central to the United States' commitment to promoting human rights," Obama said in a statement.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is also expected to speak about the announcements in Geneva later Tuesday.

The White House said Tuesday's announcement marked the first U.S. government strategy to combat human rights abuses against gays and lesbians abroad.

The order also directs U.S. government agencies to use foreign assistance to protect human rights and advance non-discrimination, and work with international organizations to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Obama's announcement is part of the White House's outreach to gays and lesbians, a core Democratic constituency. Since taking office, Obama has advocated for the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay service members and ordered the administration to stop enforcing a law defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

However, Obama has stopped short of backing gay marriage, saying only that his personal views on the matter are evolving.

Gay rights groups praised the order as a significant step for ensuring that gays and lesbians are treated equally around the world.

"Today's actions by President Obama make clear that the United States will not turn a blind eye when governments commit or allow abuses to the human rights of LGBT people," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy organization.

The presidential directive applies to all U.S. agencies involved in foreign aid, assistance and development, including the Departments of States, the Treasury, Defense and Homeland Security.

ThinkProgress wrote:Rick Perry Issues Nasty Statement Condemning Obama’s Push To Protect LGBT Human Rights

Rick Perry has condemned the Obama administration’s announcement that it will prioritize LGBT rights in its foreign policy, writing, “Just when you thought Barack Obama couldn’t get any more out of touch with America’s values, AP reports his administration wants to make foreign aid decisions based on gay rights“:

“This administration’s war on traditional American values must stop.

“I have proposed a foreign aid budget that starts at zero. From that zero baseline, we will consider aid requests based solely on America’s national security interests.

“But there is a troubling trend here beyond the national security nonsense inherent in this silly idea. This is just the most recent example of an administration at war with people of faith in this country. Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americas of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong.

“President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake.”

Of course, the United States isn’t attacking people of faith. Rather, it is promising to pursue and protect universal human rights — which, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed out in a speech today, include the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender peoples. “[R]eligious belief and practice is a vital source of meaning and identity and fundamental to who we are as people and likewise for most of us the bonds of love and family that we forge are also vital sources of meaning and identity and caring for others is an expression of what it means to be fully human,” she said. “It is because the human experience is universal that Human Rights are universal and cut across all religions and cultures.”

ThinkProgress wrote:UPDATE: Rick Santorum has joined Perry in condemning Obama’s efforts:

I would suggest that we give out humanitarian aid based on humanitarian need, not based on whether people are promoting their particular agenda. Obviously the administration is promoting their particular agenda in this country, and now they feel its their obligation to promote those values not just in the military, not just in our society, but now around the world with taxpayer dollars.

He said he’s for traditional marriage, and now he’s promoting gay lifestyles and gay rights, and he’s fighting against traditional marriage within the courts, and I think he needs to be honest.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Let's not beat about the bush Eldo's its God's fault. He hates the gays, His followers therefore hate the gays. America is full of God-botheres of the more extreme/devout type therefore they hate the gays. The gay-haters vote Republican. Ergo the Republican policy is to hate the gays. And if they get in power it becomes US policy to hate the gays.

Lorient Avandi wrote:Sodom and Gomorrah Orwell. Their sin was homosexuality as a whole, for which they were destroyed

Lorient Avandi wrote:Sodom and Gomorrah Orwell. Their sin was homosexuality as a whole, for which they were destroyed