"In cases where it was tried, it didn't help local communities and maybe made things even worse."Īn extreme case has been Uganda, which in February passed a law making gay sex punishable by a life sentence. Photograph: Stringer/AP Photograph: Stringer/AP Some Ugandan newspapers have actively supported government laws criminalising homosexuality. She criticized the US and western efforts in general to help gay communities elsewhere as patronizing. Rauda Morcos, a prominent Palestinian lesbian activist, said local communities, particularly in the Middle East, have to find their own ways of asserting themselves. While some gay rights activists say support from the US and other western countries adds moral legitimacy to their cause, it can also cause a backlash. Ambassadors can decide individually whether to hoist the rainbow flag, as embassies in Tel Aviv, London and Prague have done, or show support in other ways. The American efforts are tailored to local conditions, said Scott Busby, the deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the State Department.
"The administration would like people to believe that this is simply 'live and let live.' No, this is coercion in its worst possible form." "This is taking a flawed view of what it means to be a human being male and female and trying to impose that on countries throughout the world," Brown said. Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, calls it "a slap in the face to the majority of Americans", given that American voters have rejected same-sex marriage in a number of state referendums. Some conservative American groups are outraged by the policy.
"It's a mind-boggling change after gay couples were treated like legal strangers for the first three centuries of our country's history." "I felt like the officers at the embassy treated us the way they would treat a heterosexual couple," said Armacost, a 26-year-old fitness and nutrition instructor. The couple married two weeks ago and are now starting a new life together in Franklin, Indiana, as they wait for Lees' green card. In May Lees was issued a fiance visa at the US embassy in London. One beneficiary was Jake Lees, a 27-year-old Englishman who had been forced to spend long periods apart from his American partner, Austin Armacost, since they met six years ago. Photograph: Kyle Green/AP Photograph: Kyle Green/AP Same-sex marriage supporters gather on the steps of the Idaho statehouse in Boise. Just weeks after the supreme court struck down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act last June, consular posts also began issuing immigrant visas to the same-sex spouses of gay Americans. The State Department has since spent $12m on the efforts in over 50 countries through the Global Equality Fund, an initiative launched to fund the new work. Since then, embassies have been opening their doors to gay rights activists, hosting events and supporting local advocacy work. The watershed moment came in December 2011, when then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton went to the United Nations in Geneva and proclaimed LGBT rights "one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time". "We are used to struggling and not finding any support."įormer President George W Bush supported Aids prevention efforts globally, but it was the Obama administration that launched the push to make lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights an international issue. I am amazed by what the US is doing to help us," said Mariusz Kurc, the editor of a Polish gay advocacy magazine, Replika, which has received some US funding and other help.
American diplomats are working to support gay rights in countries such as Poland, where prejudice remains deep, and to oppose violence and other abuse in countries like Nigeria and Russia, where gays face life-threatening risks. The US sent five openly gay ambassadors abroad last year, with a sixth nominee, to Vietnam, now awaiting Senate confirmation. Diplomats will take part in parades and some embassies will fly the rainbow flag along with the Stars and Stripes. With gay pride parades taking place in many cities across the world this weekend, the US role will be more visible than ever.