Hillary Clinton. Photocredit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/459272490/sizes/m/in/photostream/
The President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, and his Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, have announced that America will do all it can, including promising foreign aid, to promote gay rights across the globe. Obama made the statement in a Presidential memorandum which said it would weigh how countries deal with gays when deciding about foreign aid; Clinton supported it in a speech made to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Clinton has already ordered diplomats to bring up the issue wherever harrassment or abuse cases arise, as well as announcing a $3 million program to finance gay rights organisations. The initiative has been prompted by the situation in countries such as Uganda, where legal steps are taken against gay men and lesbians, with the possibility of it being punishable by death. Homosexuality is a criminal offense in many countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which receive aid from America. The world has largely reacted positively, with most supporting the measures; others, however, see it as merely a cynical ploy in the run up to the 2012 election to play up to Obama’s Democratic constituency. Gay rights groups have been ecstatic.
“Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct, but in fact they are one and the same,” said Clinton at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, quoted in The New York Times.
“When have we ever heard words so inspired, so sharply pronounced by a person who represents one of the major world powers — if not the greatest — of all deployed from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people?” Queer Blog, an Italian website, quoted (and translated) by The Atlantic Wire.
Global reactions. The Atlantic Wire ran a story showing global reactions to the speech, noting that Le Nouvel Observateur pointed out that Obama still doesn’t support gay marriage fully; South Africa’s news website, iAfrica, said that Clinton’s speech has come when “African countries are growing increasingly tired” of the West’s “preoccupation with this issue.”
Symbolic. Whilst it may have no teeth, raising the issue is symbolic, said The New York Times. It could “bolster support among gay voters”; but could also bring “attacks from Republicans,” as well as annoying certain allies of America, like Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The latter country bans homosexuality, and it’s punishable by death.
“If the U.S. government were to cut foreign aid on the basis of the violation of LGBT rights, then this would be a wise measure only if it was applied consistently both to Iran and to Saudi Arabia,” says Renato Sabbadini, Co-Secretary-General of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, quoted on Radio Free Europe.
Meddling in other people’s business? Daisy Sindelar on Radio Free Europe asked the million dollar question: “Is the United States upholding human rights, or meddling in other people’s business?” If they’re not actually going to slash aid, then how will pressure be brought down on antigay countries? Afghanistan and Pakistan are likely to resist, as will Russia, where the Orthodox Church and other movements have started to repress the gay rights movement there. Russia might even react to the announcement by passing harsher anti-gay laws out of spite.
“President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles,” said Presidential Candidate Rick Perry, quoted on The Guardian.
At least the issue’s back on the table. Obama and Clinton have “taken a brave and not immediately beneficial stand,” said Jason Farago in The Guardian. We can’t yet say what its effect will be in, say, Nigeria or Sudan. But Clinton did receive a standing ovation, and none of the delegates walked out (until after the applause.) It’s great that “homosexuality is back on the page”, and “in the cool terms of rights, laws and power.” Obama has done a lot already in America, beyond gay marriage – he’s guaranteeing hospital visitation rights for gay patients’ partners, and is protecting LGBT people against housing discrimination. But these have been done by “fiat”, not by law. Only two gay-related bills have been passed in Congress since Obama was elected. Anti-gays, though, are sounding increasingly “ridiculous.” Perry’s idea of “tolerance” means nothing. It’s engaging with the “reality of gay people” that’s “what really matters.” And Clinton’s gone a long way towards helping that.
There are problems. Reid Smith in The American Spectator said that the announcement was “problematic.” He finds criminalising gay people “revolting.” But using foreign aid to promote human rights will be unsuccessful: you can’t change foreign attitudes through bribery. Will Obama pull troops out of Uganda, which is one of the most intolerant countries for gays? What this really is is “a transparent political outreach … gussied up in the guise of global cosmopolitanism.”
