UK and USA Push Gay Rights as Foundation for International Aid - Comments

This is a very complicated issue for a multitude of reasons.
On the one hand, it would be really cool to get the rights that everyone else has, but I wouldn't like knowing that America only gave them to me because they had to, and i can't help but feel like people wouldn't really acknowledge the rights and 'protection' i would be given.
America seems to have this annoying little habit of turning everything into a battle, when the rest of the world (Well, most of it, anayways) gave up slavey, we didn't want to, and I won't even bother to name the countless other times America has been ridiculously stubborn over issues that shouldn't even be debated over. The point is, other countries shouldn't have to push America to do anything, America should be doing right by the people it houses because it's her people.

I agree with Kurtni on this and also, I'd like to point out to people like Katie_Bugg that yes, women do need more rights around the world. However, there's also the added fact that I don't know of any place where someone will kill a woman simply because she's a woman. There are a lot of places that will kill someone simply because they're gay or a lesbian. Their sexuality in itself makes them criminals. Also, I don't think it's fair to go, "Well, women don't have rights so gays shouldn't be focused on." There have been a lot of people striving for equality between men and women and in a lot of countries, genital mutilation, which used to be far more prominent, is being banned from the top in countries. Granted, it's hard to control the more rural and isolated areas, but it's still steps in the right direction.

This world can be a horrific place, but we don't treat it like we treated our messy room when we were children and go, "Too much to do, nothing I can do," and then give up. You do little bits at a time. Change doesn't happen overnight.

In my opinion, we as a country need to reduce aid spending overall anyway. We're in trillions of dollars of debt - we need to clean our own house before we start carping on how our neighbors do their dusting. A government exists to solve internal problems, not external ones.

There's no law saying other countries have to accept the aid money. If they want the money, they change. The UK and the USA have every right to attach strings to money they are giving without expecting back (which is a terrible, horrific economic decision anyway).

You're right: It's unfair to force a culture change overnight. But that's not what's happening here. Nobody is running in and screaming "GO HAVE GAY RELATIONS NOW AAAARRRRGH!" They're pushing tolerance - maybe not liberty, but tolerance.

I totally agree with the end of this article. This is going to open the door for more bullying to come. Here's my question: if LGBT rights are being pushed, what about women's rights? What about the women who look into a man's eyes as an equal and are raped and it's called justified? What about the women who are stoned to death for leaving an abusive husband or having sex before they're married?

LGBT may be illegal in other countries and I'm sorry about that. But what about the rights of women as well? If women have no rights period then LGBT rights mean nothing to them.

To me, they're looking over something that is a need in a country, in order to appease the LGBT community since they won't give them marriage.

I completely agree with Kurtni. You do make the point that it is unrealistic to believe that any country can change overnight, but the issue is not marriage or adoption, the issue is being locked away and, quite often, brutally murdered.

While reading your article, I had the thought of, "Well, this is somewhat hypocritcal since the US is still battling with gay marriage," but again, is that the real issue here or is it the issue mainstream media has put in the limelight? I'm a high school senior in a first world country, a country that has been known to lead the free world in this modern age, and yet I have a teacher who won't let me partner up with girls, kids from school come to my work and throw garbage, sauce packets, even their own food at me while calling me a faggot, and when it comes to real college considerations, my concerns aren't if I can afford it or if I'm going to miss my mom, but if I'll live to see my graduating day.

This has nothing to do with being politically correct - is that how you really see this issue, this change in the world? - but everything to do with the radical idea that similar genitals touching doesn't deem one a disgusting heathen.

The greater issue here is still not about adoption or anything else, but the fact that people are forced to become slaves to a lie. That people are killed over the way that they were born. That pious centers all over the globe - Christian to Islamic to numerous more - are playing God and deciding who is and isn't worthy. These policies don't address how to live your life, these policies address the notion that oppression is unacceptable.

If a culture doesn't want to accept the idea that gays are people, the problem isn't ancient culture, it's how do we, global citizens, stand up before another Hitler brings about a mass genocide on a group of people who really are no different than the strangers they pass on the street.

I don't think this has to do with being "politically correct," but respecting basic human dignity. They're not talking about recognizing gay marriage or civil unions, when they say "rights," they mean not murdering gay people in the street or imprisoning them. As an American, I'm glad to know at least some attempt is being made to spend my tax money ethically.

If America is giving the foreign aid, they have the right to attach conditions; no one is forced to accept it if they feel it truly diminishes their culture.