Gay international

Gay rights activists would not be wrong to think the Obama administration has pulled the old “bait and switch” on them.

After being courted by a suave young Democrat, the gay and lesbian community has become disenchanted a year into an administration in which similarities to its predecessor are all that have come out of the closet.

Sure, the president called on Congress in his State of the Union Address to overturn the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy prohibiting gay men and lesbians from serving openly. But with higher priorities such as health-care reform being rolled over from last year’s legislative failure-fest, I’m less than optimistic about even this modest change’s chance for success.

In the absence of a presidential advocate, it is fitting that the past year has seen a new generation of activists emerge to demand expanded rights in the more immediate future.

While it would be wrong to downplay the importance of making these changes, it also requires severe myopia to overlook the improved state of GLBT rights on a global scale.

To be sure, the expansion of gay rights has been the dominant trend in the past decade. In September 2000, same-sex Dutch couples won the right to civil marriage. Since then, six other countries have followed the example, and a number of others, including the United States, Mexico and Argentina, have had local and subnational governments recognize the right in the absence of a national consensus.

It’s also worth remembering that it was only in 2003 that the United States Supreme Court overruled 14 states’ anti-sodomy laws, replacing legislated sexual morality with the belief that consenting adults should be able to choose the private behaviors in which they wish to engage.

But when we consider what progress should be made regarding gay rights in the coming decade, it is important to remember that gaining legal recognition for same-sex marriage in the United States is hardly the most pressing issue confronting gays around the world. 

Backlashes against gays’ improved status in select Western countries have frequently made the news in Africa. After three Evangelical Christians preached of “curing” homosexuality in Uganda last year, legislators were inspired to propose that the death penalty be instituted against those committing homosexual acts. And in the final days of 2009, a man and his transgendered partner were arrested in Malawi for performing indecent acts after they celebrated their engagement.

In the industrialized world, we cannot shy away from the fact that the movements that have empowered us have had a hand in provoking these draconian, inhumane penalties.

The GLBT rights movement in the United States must develop a greater international consciousness. Insofar as we claim that marriage is a human right that transcends national laws, we must recognize that the application of the death penalty for committing same-sex acts is a far more egregious abuse of human rights than prohibitions on same-sex marriage.

When we advocate for the equal protection that is rightfully ours, it would be both ignorant and conceited to forget that it is not gays in the West, but those in the developing world, who are bearing the real burden of reactionary homophobia.
 

E-mail: wallacen@indiana.edu