President Joe Biden continues to fulfill his promise for equity. His latest memo supports global LGBTQ rights. The president also pledges to extend asylum to the LGBTQ community abroad.
Former Obama administration United States Attorney General Eric Holder told theGrio exclusively, “The action taken by President Biden today is consistent with our nation acting at its best. Supporting people around the world who are persecuted for their sexual orientation is in line with American ideals.
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“Opening asylum to those who have suffered demonstrates to the world that America is back and ready to lead again,” he added.
P.J Crowley, former assistant secretary of state for public affairs for the Obama administration, affirms that the Biden administration is viewing this issue as a civil rights and human rights matter that will put nations on notice.
Crowley says of the memo, “it brings into the diplomatic conversation these issues. In the future diplomatic conversations with the United States, this can be a problem if [a country is] …on the wrong side of this history.
“That matters!” Crowley emphasizes.
In Africa, 22 of the 54 nations, same-sex coupling is legal. “Take a country like Uganda that listens to the Christian right,” Crowley says. Same-sex relation is a crime in that country.
Religion has dominated the issue for some countries. It has even split churches like the United Methodist Church over same-sex marriage.
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In 2021, there are countries that not only frown upon same-sex couples but view the act of sex between same-sex couples as illegal “unnatural carnal acts” or “acts against the order of nature.”
Amnesty International UK says homosexual acts are punished by death in Mauritania, Sudan, Northern Nigeria, and Southern Somalia.
It is illegal in Botswana, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Kenya and more.
In the Caribbean, homosexual acts are punished by prison in Antigua, Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent.
Humanitarian and activist Sheryl Lee Ralph for years has been in support of the LGBTQ community with her Diva’s Simply Singing, an annual event where proceeds benefit AIDS awareness and the reduction of stigma especially in the Black community.
She offers, “Thank you, Joe Biden, for being a defender of Democracy. Thank you for choosing to ensure the healthy survival of our LGBTQ community, many of who stood with you against hate and division in the last election.”
She adds, “Thank you for reminding us all that we must take time to see beyond ourselves and accept others just as they are.”
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