UK: Perry's anti-gay stance plays to the GOP base

The Economist

The nastiness of Rick Perry

LIKE most people, I felt a deep pang of sympathy for Rick Perry when he couldn't remember three simple things at a debate last month. There's no pleasure in watching another man, even one who you disagree with, brought low like that. So I thought, at least.

On Tuesday the White House sent out a memorandum "directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons." This is in keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which America is a signatory, and in response to the tragic violence and oppression gays still face in many countries around the world. The memo is more symbolic than anything else, because in reality the new policy doesn't do all that much. In a speech on the same topic, Hillary Clinton said America has committed more than $3m to help groups working on LGBT issues around the world. Feel free to correct my math, but I believe that's about .0001% of America's budget.

To Rick Perry, this is reprehensible:

"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... Promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America’s interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money."

As Andrew Sullivan points out, "not getting murdered isn't a 'special right'". And when a majority of the country believes gays should be allowed to marry, it doesn't seem much of a stretch to suppose that Americans don't want to see gays killed due to their sexual orientation. So who is out of touch with America's values?

America constantly makes foreign-aid decisions based on the rights of disadvantaged groups, like women and Jews. Yet despite his aversion to foreign aid, Mr Perry has not complained about the State Department's 16 days of activism against gender violence, or its efforts to combat anti-Semitism. No, Mr Perry is targeting gays for the sake of targeting anti-gay votes in America, specifically Iowa. This not only reeks of desperation; it is simply nasty stuff.

Update: As a commenter points out, and as Mr Sullivan noted in his post, this is of a piece with Mr Perry's new campaign ad, which also seems strangely out of touch with American values, but disappointingly in touch with Republican primary voters in Iowa.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/12/anti-gay-politicking