Barack Obama has integrated promotions of homosexuality and other alternative lifestyle choices into his policy and practice since his election, successfully promoting the “gay” lifestyle in the U.S. military and forbidding the enforcement of the federal law called the Defense of Marriage Act that supported traditional marriage.
The extent of the reach of his actions perhaps was epitomized by last week’s announcement that the U.S. Embassy in Israel was flying a rainbow flag – representing homosexual activism – along with Old Glory.
But now a coalition in Congress, made up exclusively of Democrats, wants to take the effort further and make promoting LGBT “human rights” a “priority for the U.S. government worldwide.”
Prepared by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the “International Human Rights Defense Act” would demand that the State Department “make preventing and responding to discrimination and violence against the LGBT community a foreign policy priority and devise a global strategy to achieve those goals.”
It also would create a job for a federal bureaucrat specifically to do those promotions.
Markey, who was joined by more than a dozen other Democrats in affirming the new guidance for a worldwide campaign for the U.S., said in a statement on Friday there are more than 80 nations around the world that criminalize homosexuality.
“In seven countries, homosexuality is punishable by death,” his announcement noted.
“For the United States to hold true to our commitment to defending the human rights of all people around the world, we must stand with the LGBT community in their struggle for recognition and equality everywhere,” Markey said. “The International Human Rights Defense Act will foster a coordinated effort across the federal government and relevant agencies so we can meet the enormous challenge before us and work to ensure equality for all people around the globe.”
Cheryl Chumley, author of the newly released “Police State USA: How Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming our Reality,” said it’s another example of the government using its authority and power to pursue a special interest for Obama – far beyond where the Constitution allows it to go.
“Markey wants our U.S. State Department to take a politically charged stand on homosexual rights and try and push his liberal views onto other governments. Really? Doesn’t America under President Obama have enough problems with its foreign policy without jumping into the hot-bed that’s called gay rights?” she said.
See what is happening to America, and what your future may include, in “Police State U.S.A.”
“You know, countries like Yemen, Iran and Qatar punish homosexuality with death,” Chumley said. “So do Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as several other Muslim-dominated nations where Shariah law is woven into the politics and culture. Is it Markey’s contention that the State Department’s new rightful role should be to demand these nations cease and desist what he sees as a discriminatory practice?” she continued.
“Just look at what’s going on in Iraq right now, with the mass execution of U.S.-backed government forces and the Democrat-controlled administration’s inability to deal effectively with this growing aggression. This current administration already has a track record of failure and a reputation of weakness on all-things-international. A bill like Markey’s just adds to the reputation of the United States under President Obama as feckless,” Chumley said.
“On top of that, a bill like this just reeks of special interest agenda, and – just as our nation’s military under Obama is tasked with pursuing a radical environmental agenda, or NASA under Obama tasked with boosting the self-esteem of Muslim nations by emphasizing their space contributions – it makes our country’s top diplomats push forward with a public relations message that’s sure to do one thing: Make America look even more impotent on the international stage.”
Markey’s plan is so new the actual wording hadn’t yet been released.
But in addition to Obama’s wide-ranging promotions of homosexuality throughout society, his vice president, Joe Biden, says the chief executive should be using his Oval Office authority to ban workplace discrimination for federal contractors regarding “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.”
“I don’t see any downside,” Biden recently told the Huffington Post when asked about Obama taking executive action.
As far back as 2008, Obama made commitments to pursue promotions of LGBT issues.
Markey’s plan specifically would require the federal government to “make preventing and responding to discrimination and violence against the LGBT community a foreign policy priority.”
It also would coordinate campaigns to “promote international LGBT human rights” and create a federal “Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Peoples.”
Others supporting the idea include Sens. Charles Schumer, N.Y.; Patty Murray, Wash.; Barbara Boxer, Calif.; Ben Cardin, Md.; Chris Murphy, Conn.; Tammy Baldwin, Wis.; Elizabeth Warren, Mass.; Jeff Merkley, Ore.; Kirsten Gillibrand, N.Y.; Marla Cantwell, Wash.; Richard Blumenthal, Conn.; Sheldon Whitehouse, R.I.; Mazie Hirono, Hawaii; Dick Durbin, Ill.; Sherrod Brown, Ohio; Patrick Leahy, Vt.; Brian Schatz, Hawaii; Ron Wyden, Ore.; Cory Booker, N.J.; Chris Coons, Del.; Dianne Feinstein, Calif.; Barbara Mikulski, Md.; Al Franken, Minn.; and Jeanne Shaheen, N.H.
All are Democrats.
A wide range of homosexual activist groups endorsed the idea.
Kerry Kennedy of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights praised Markey for his work that “speaks truth to power.”
“This historic legislation … will entrench the protection of LGBT people around the world as a policy priority of the Untied States and reflect our role as a beacon of decency and freedom.