Obama's insistence on Gay Rights could be troubling

Obama, Clinton to world: Stop gay discrimination

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have both stepped up international efforts to ensure rights for gays. Clinton likens the fight for gay rights to the fight for racial equality and women's rights in America, saying that it is a gay rights are equivalent to human rights. Obama has gone as far as saying that foreign assistance and diplomacy will be used to ensure gay rights worldwide.

This brings with it some troubling questions, as well as difficulties for the Obama administration. For instance, it cannot be said that even within America, gays have completely equal rights. Although the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell was lauded by LGBT groups nationwide, the Defense of Marriage Act is still law in the United States and many states d0 not allow gay marriage. Also, homophobia is still alive and well in the US. Much like the debate over whether the government should help subsidize abortions, which evangelical Christians were up in arms against, there is likely to be political backlash from evangelical groups if Obama uses foreign aid to try and coerce nations into protecting gay rights.

An important question that needs to be asked is how far President Obama is willing to go in order to ensure gay rights in other countries. For instance, when Clinton was giving her speech, her audience included representatives from many Arab and African nations in which it is outright illegal to be gay. In these countries, homosexuals are oppressed and in some cases, this oppression is augmented by state-sanctioned attacks on homosexuals. It is naive to expect these countries to have a sudden change of heart and acknowledge gay rights, especially when some of them don't even acknowledge that homosexuals exist.

While many humanitarian groups and a large chunk of Obama's base may be in support of gay rights and want exactly this kind of policy in place, the wisdom of the US's stance, especially considering that it doesn't have its own matters in order, seems questionable. Only time will tell just how devoted the Obama administration and future administrations will be to this policy and how America and the world will react.