Saturday, March 21, 2009

A step forward for International Gay Rights

It appears that the U.S. is finally starting to catch up with the rest of the Western world on human rights and LGBT people. President Obama has said that the U.S. is going to sign onto a U.N. Gay Rights Declaration, stating that sexual orientation and gender identity are covered under international human rights protections. This act also calls for the universal repeal of laws criminalizing homosexuality and other so-called “Sodomy Laws” that allow for the prosecutions and murders of gays, lesbians and transgender people around the world.

It should be noted that earlier the Bush Administration did not sign onto this declaration under the justification of “technical legal grounds concerning federal and state jurisdiction over gay rights.” Excuse me while I roll my eyes at that and the suggestion that the states should be allowed to decide if they can execute me for being gay.

Over 60 other countries signed on to this declaration at the time it was proposed, and the ones who haven’t are places like Egypt, The Vatican, Uganda and other countries I won’t be visiting anytime soon. There are also some people using the old “Slippery Slope” argument to justify not signing it, but that’s an issue for another day.

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