Obama Administration Moving Forward With Global Gay Rights
Obama reverses another Bush policy
The administration’s move was praised by many human rights groups who see it as another step away from the Bush-era policies that were heavily criticized during his eight years in office. The United States was the only Western country not to sign onto the declaration when it came through the United Nations. At the time, the U.S. sided with countries like Iran, where homosexual acts are punishable by death.
“The United States supports the U.N.’s statement on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity and is pleased to join the other 66 U.N. member states who have declared their support of the statement,” said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.
Human Rights Campaign, a group focused on taking up issues that affect the gay community, said the new stance was a step in the right direction.
“We’ve seen lots of positive changes happening at the State Department- we applaud the leadership of President Obama and Secretary Clinton and will continue to push them to support LGBT rights at home and abroad,” according to a statement on the HRC website, hrcbackstory.org.
During a meeting in Brussells, Secretary Clinton made it clear that the administration was completely supportive of gay rights on a global scale.
According to previous negotiators with the Bush administration, they were concerned that the declaration infringed on matters that were state issues, such as gay marriage. They said they opposed discrimination based on sexual orientation but they had legal questions about parts of the declaration.
But the Obama administration said after they reviewed the document they did not find that there were any legal obligations.
66 of the 192 members of the General Assembly signed onto the declaration, including all of the European Union members, Japan, Australia, and Mexico.
The declaration, which is nonbinding, condemns rights abuses against gays and urges countries to pass laws to ensure that “sexual orientation or gender identity” can “not be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention.”
There are still about 70 countries that outlaw homosexuality, according to the Associated Press. The Vatican was a vocal opponent to the declaration.
This reversal is just one of many that the Obama administration has made since it came into power. The most notable have been decisions to lift restrictions on abortion and stem cell research.
