In his remarks at Tuesday’s memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela, President Obama included a mention of those persecuted for “who they love.” Tuesday, too, Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power included LGBT people in their statements on Human Rights Day, and Power spoke at a Roundtable Strategy Session on International LGBT Rights. LGBT rights in India suffered a major blow, however, with its Supreme Court finding the country’s sodomy law constitutional, recriminalizing same-sex relations.
President Obama’s remarks are well worth reading or listening to in full. Here’s the part in which he ties LGB rights to broader human rights, at an event with a huge international viewership:
The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality or universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important. For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger and disease. We still see run-down schools. We still see young people without prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs, and are still persecuted for what they look like, and how they worship, and who they love. That is happening today.
And so we, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace.
In his proclamation declaring December 10 Human Rights Day, he was even clearer about LGBT inclusion, mentioning both sexual orientation and gender identity:
Across the globe, our common and inalienable rights bind us as one. All women and men — across borders and regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, or income level — share the freedoms of expression, religion, assembly, and association.
Secretary Kerry’s Human Right Day statement was also LGBT inclusive:
Making this vision a reality requires both the persistent protection of governments as well as the active participation of citizens. Nothing can match the power of grassroots movements. In my own generation’s struggle, I saw vividly how activists came together to change our nation through movements committed to advance labor rights, civil rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, the rights of the disabled, the environment and peace. America grew stronger because courageous citizens were willing to take a stand to fight for the things they believed in, willing to risk their lives on picket lines and voting lines and even go to jail for justice, to help their country live up to its ideals.
Whether it’s good that he didn’t have to explain the acronym “LGBT” is an open question. On the one hand, it implies a wide familiarity with the term. On the other, I’d bet many simply think it’s a synonym for “gay,” without bothering to parse it.
Ambassador Power, in her official statement on the day, was perhaps clearer by saying “sexual orientation and gender identity”:
While we commemorate Human Rights Day and recall the terrible events that caused the world to come together to create it, we must also recognize that its solemn vows are broken every day. Human rights are the rights of girls in India not to be gang-raped, the rights of Syrians not to be attacked by snipers and SCUD missiles and the rights of people in Central African Republic not to be assaulted with machetes. They’re the rights of people in Chinese civil society to freely express themselves, Burmese political prisoners to voice their beliefs without threat of detention and the rights of all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, to be treated as equals.
She went into more detail on LGBT matters yesterday at a U.N. Roundtable Strategy Session on International LGBT Rights, describing some of the progress in LGBT rights made at the U.N., as well as some of the challenges our world has yet to face. She, like President Obama, also tied LGBT rights to the legacy of Mandela:
The death this past week of Nelson Mandela reminds us of what one fearless and passionate voice can achieve when raised in a righteous cause. Your example, the work that you do every day in support of the LGBT community, and your meeting together now to share ideas and learn from one another makes me proud and makes me very, very confident about the road ahead.
She also spoke to the need for action at many levels:
If we are to continue changing laws, ending violence, enlightening minds, and opening hearts, we must go forward on every front — locally, as you all demonstrate, and globally.
Clouding the vision of international progress, however, was the decision by India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday to uphold the constitutionality of the country’s 19th-century sodomy law, in effect recriminalizing same-sex relations, and to send the issue back to lawmakers. India is the world’s second most populous nation, with 1.2 billion people. That’s a lot of gay folks, any way you look at it. Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, put it well:
Wednesday’s Indian Supreme Court decision reversing a lower court and recriminalizing same-sex sexual intimacy marks a dreadful new judicial low for international LGBT human rights. . . . We are living in a Dickensian world, the best of times for many LGBT people in great swathes of this nation and some other countries, and the worst of times on far too much of the planet. It is impossible to enjoy our liberty and freedom knowing that so many others suffer. We always knew our work was not done, and today we have another grim reminder.
In less dire but still unfortunate news, Australia’s High Court struck down a law Thursday that had allowed same-sex couples in the Australian Capital Territory to start marrying. The court ruled unanimously that the law violated the federal Marriage Act that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. It seems that any marriages conducted under the short-lived law will be annulled.
On a brighter note, same-sex and unmarried couples in Northern Ireland may now apply to adopt children, as they can elsewhere in the U.K. That’s progress — although the decision in India casts a pall over the news this week.