Their Refusal To Tolerate Is Creating Global Backlash On LGBT People
This return to pragmatism breaks with the Obama yearsâ rigid ideological dogmatism about human rights and clearly rattled the bureaucrats who leaked the memo. But his arguments cannot be easily shoved aside. Promoting a rigid leftist agenda internationally is a form of social engineering.
The Human Rights Campaign is enraged that Egypt may enact a law that punishes waving the rainbow flag or otherwise promoting LGBT behavior. Yet Egypt is just the latest example in a global streak of laws and enforcement actions to chastise sodomy  homosexual lewdness  and LGBT advocacy  as the Washington Post reported last fall. African countries  Russia and ex-Soviet nations  as well as Indonesia  Malaysia  Bangladesh  and other Asian nations with significant Muslim populations  have all responded to increased pressure about LGBT policies during the  Obama  administration with punitive laws  policies to protect children from homosexual propaganda  and even police crackdowns on LGBT establishments and social circles.
Although socially traditional  most of the countries where the backlash is hardest were never hotbeds of anti-gay sentiment  or especially dangerous for individuals who led an LGBT double life. They became so as a result of the relentless international pressure on LGBT issues from the U.S. State Department during the Obama administration  United Nations (UN) bureaucrats  the European Union  huge corporations  and LGBT groups backed by billionaires and western governments.
Under Obamaâs presidency  LGBT policies seemed to became the highest priority of the U.S. State Department. We have pressured countries to stop opposing LGBT policies at the United Nations. We have boasted of twisting diplomatsâ arms to get them to back off defending their laws and social norms  sacrificing other U.S. foreign policy priorities and further widening the democratic deficit at the UN.
Most egregiously  during the Obama years the United States asked repeatedly to scrap the part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights about the family as ânatural and fundamental group unit of societyâ in U.N. documents. The reason is simple. Under this standard  international law does not recognize homosexual relations as capable of constituting a family.
Although LGBT advocacy has lessened under the Trump administration  the United States has yet to officially change position on most of these matters. Those pushing this agenda are deeply embedded in the U.S. State Department and still carrying the momentum of the Obama years  dictating many U.S. positions in international negotiations.
During the Obama administration  especially in the final two years  LGBT issues became more public and politically divisive at the United Nations and in capitals around the world. Delegates routinely complained about the relentless LGBT pressure from  the Obama administration .
Already  the issue has polarized the UN system like never before. Last year  the Human Rights Council established the first UN post with a mandate to address violence and discrimination on âsexual orientation and gender identity.â That mandate was contested all the way to a very close vote in the General Assembly  despite an herculean effort of  the Obama administration  to get countries to not show up to vote according to their own laws. Nearly half the General Assembly subsequently declared it does not consider the mandate legitimate.
This return to pragmatism breaks with the Obama yearsâ rigid ideological dogmatism about human rights and clearly rattled the bureaucrats who leaked the memo. But his arguments cannot be easily shoved aside. Promoting a rigid leftist agenda internationally is a form of social engineering.
The Human Rights Campaign is enraged that Egypt may enact a law that punishes waving the rainbow flag or otherwise promoting LGBT behavior. Yet Egypt is just the latest example in a global streak of laws and enforcement actions to chastise sodomy  homosexual lewdness  and LGBT advocacy  as the Washington Post reported last fall. African countries  Russia and ex-Soviet nations  as well as Indonesia  Malaysia  Bangladesh  and other Asian nations with significant Muslim populations  have all responded to increased pressure about LGBT policies during the  Obama  administration with punitive laws  policies to protect children from homosexual propaganda  and even police crackdowns on LGBT establishments and social circles.
Although socially traditional  most of the countries where the backlash is hardest were never hotbeds of anti-gay sentiment  or especially dangerous for individuals who led an LGBT double life. They became so as a result of the relentless international pressure on LGBT issues from the U.S. State Department during the Obama administration  United Nations (UN) bureaucrats  the European Union  huge corporations  and LGBT groups backed by billionaires and western governments.
Under Obamaâs presidency  LGBT policies seemed to became the highest priority of the U.S. State Department. We have pressured countries to stop opposing LGBT policies at the United Nations. We have boasted of twisting diplomatsâ arms to get them to back off defending their laws and social norms  sacrificing other U.S. foreign policy priorities and further widening the democratic deficit at the UN.
Most egregiously  during the Obama years the United States asked repeatedly to scrap the part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights about the family as ânatural and fundamental group unit of societyâ in U.N. documents. The reason is simple. Under this standard  international law does not recognize homosexual relations as capable of constituting a family.
Although LGBT advocacy has lessened under the Trump administration  the United States has yet to officially change position on most of these matters. Those pushing this agenda are deeply embedded in the U.S. State Department and still carrying the momentum of the Obama years  dictating many U.S. positions in international negotiations.
During the  [TGT]  administration  especially in the final two years  LGBT issues became more public and politically divisive at the United Nations and in capitals around the world. Delegates routinely complained about the relentless LGBT pressure from  the  [TGT]  administration .
Already  the issue has polarized the UN system like never before. Last year  the Human Rights Council established the first UN post with a mandate to address violence and discrimination on âsexual orientation and gender identity.â That mandate was contested all the way to a very close vote in the General Assembly  despite an herculean effort of  the Obama administration  to get countries to not show up to vote according to their own laws. Nearly half the General Assembly subsequently declared it does not consider the mandate legitimate.