Obama, Clinton to world: Stop gay discrimination

SAN FRANCISCO — The Obama administration's declaration that it plans to use foreign assistance, international diplomacy and political asylum to promote gay rights abroad is a momentous step that could dangerously backfire if not pursued with delicacy and an appreciation of how the challenges faced by gays and lesbians vary by nation, human rights activists said.

President Barack Obama, in a memorandum to executive departments, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, during a speech before the U.N. Human Rights Council, issued a coordinated denunciation Tuesday of anti-gay discrimination, stating that equal treatment of gay, lesbian and transgender people was an explicit U.S. foreign policy goal.

The White House said the twin moves represented the U.S. government's first comprehensive strategy to combat sexual orientation-based human rights abuses around the world. Gay rights groups cheered the actions, noting that gays and lesbians can be arrested, tortured and even executed in some countries.

Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, a group that monitors religious organizations with anti-gay views, listed Russia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Iran and Zimbabwe among the nations that had recently "declared war on sexual minorities" and said that he hoped they would be chastened by the administration's blunt talk.

"This was one of those times where our nation demonstrated true international leadership and made me incredibly proud to be an American," Besen said. "There were no carefully crafted and focus grouped code words that sugarcoated the abuses — just the honest truth spoken from the heart."

Other activists focused on gay rights internationally were more restrained in their praise. Neil Grungras, founder of the San Francisco-based organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration, which represents gay asylum-seekers, said it was critical for the administration to secure allies on every continent to avoid looking like it was imposing American values on parts of the world that view the West with mistrust or hostility.

Recalling how large demonstrations broke out in Pakistan in June after staff at the U.S. Embassy held a gay pride celebration there, he said that Obama's sincere commitment to improving the gay rights picture globally could inadvertently make life worse for gays and lesbians abroad.