As reported yesterday, President Obama issued a memorandum “directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons.”
Well, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is not good with the United States standing up for universal human rights.
To Rick Perry, using U.S. foreign aid to prevent persecution and even execution of LGBT people amounts to “promoting special rights for gays.”
Perry on Tuesday issued a statement which said, in part:
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“Just when you thought Barack Obama couldn’t get any more out of touch with America’s values, AP reports his administration wants to make foreign aid decisions based on gay rights.
“This administration’s war on traditional American values must stop.
“This is just the most recent example of an administration at war with people of faith in this country. Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americas of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong.
“President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake.”
First of all, there is no war on anyone’s faith in America.
Everyone is allowed to hold their own beliefs. How is standing up for the rights of a minority of people around the world a “war on American values?” And no tax dollars are being “invested” in promoting any lifestyle.
Second, Perry seems to be playing a bit of “do as I say, not as I do.”
He wants to wage a cultural war against gays and lesbians, where we are supposed to be happy that we are tolerated, but he (and those of like-minded bigotry) gets to be angry an American President would take the time to add his leadership to respecting ALL citizens of the planet – not just evangelical Christians.
Ironically, this statement comes from Perry on the same day that an Associated Press review of Perry’s phone records and daily public schedules reveals a chronology of the governor’s meetings before his campaign launch, which seems to indicate that the Texas governor may have used his official phone line for campaign outreach.
Texas state ethics rules prohibit use of state phones for campaign purposes. Perry officials said the talks were for official business.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum also denounced the call for global equal rights by adding that Obama “said he’s for traditional marriage, and now he’s promoting gay lifestyles and gay rights, and he’s fighting against traditional marriage within the courts, and I think he needs to be honest.”
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Rick Perry upset over new U.S. policy of promoting universal human rights