Gay Rights Gained in US Amid Russian, Ugandan Reversals
Bloomberg - 1 hour ago
Photographer: Ben Curtis/AP Photo
Kenyan gays and lesbians stage a rare protest against Uganda's
increasingly tough...
At a time of growing public acceptance of gay rights in the U.S.,
flash points of resistance in Russia and Africa point to the endurance
of discrimination over sexual orientation as a political tool.
From Moscow to Kampala, punitive new laws against homosexuality have
been enacted, solidifying support for the leaders in some quarters,
including churches, while drawing criticism from elsewhere in the
world.
President Barack Obama, who backed same-sex marriage rights in his
re-election campaign, has chastised Uganda for passing laws calling
for prison sentences for homosexual acts. And the U.S. sent a
delegation featuring famous gay athletes to the 2014 Olympics in
Sochi, Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has signed laws banning
the adoption of Russian-born children by foreign gay couples and
blocking distribution of information about "non-traditional sexual
relations" to minors.
"Since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., Russia has been searching for its
special mission," said Richard Mole, a senior lecturer in East
European studies at University College London. "Establishing itself as
the defender of traditional values against Western decadence can be
seen as a way for Russia to fulfill its historical destiny."
While the world used to be more aligned against homosexuality, the
spectrum of opinion today places pressure on politicians who champion
laws and customs opposing it, said Michael Klarman, a professor at
Harvard Law School and author of "From the Closet to the Altar," a
legal history of same-sex marriage.
Russians Resist
Forces "have led to the progressivity in Western Europe and the United
States" so "those forces will also be at work in the rest of the
world," Klarman said.
"It's just that the rest of the world started in a different
position," he said, adding that Russia eventually will see support for
gays become an international human rights issue. "They see that change
is being pushed around the world, and it's going to come for them, and
so they're resisting it."
Most Russians -- 74 percent, according to polls conducted by the
Levada Center last year -- say the state must prosecute public
displays of homosexuality. And 47 percent said gays and lesbians
shouldn't have the same rights as other citizens, while 39 percent
said they should. By contrast, a majority of Americans now accept
same-sex marriage, surveys show, with 17 states and the nation's
capital legalizing those unions.
'Notorious Law'
"The notorious law against homosexual propaganda among minors passed
by the Russian parliament helped to spur the problem of gay marriage
in particular and the problem of homophobia in general," said Tatyana
Vorozheikina, an analyst at the Levada Center. "The law was homophobic
in general and it sharply increased the homophobic mood in Russia."
While conditions for gay people are improving in the U.S. and other
nations, they're worsening elsewhere, says Evan Wolfson, founder of
Freedom to Marry, a New York-based group leading a campaign to
legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.
"Gay people are often the canary in the coal mine," Wolfson said. "The
way a country treats gay people, like the way it treats women, is
often an indication of even deeper flaws and abuses with regard to
bedrock principles of pluralism, the rule of law and democracy."
Attempts at toughening laws against homosexuality in some countries,
particularly those lacking democratic traditions, speak to the
political needs of leaders more than any common global theme,
according to John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute at the
University of Akron in Ohio, who has led studies of religion in
politics.
Loose Parallels
"I'd be very cautious about drawing too close a parallel, because each
of the circumstances are different and each of the leaders have
different motivations," Green said. "It's important to remember that
Russia and Uganda are not as thoroughly democratized."
In the U.S., the Pew Research Center has found that support for
same-sex marriage rose above a majority for the first time last year,
with 51 percent supporting the right of gays and lesbians to marry and
42 percent opposing it.
Acceptance has accelerated most dramatically among the young, Pew
found, with those younger than 30 supporting gay marriage by about
two-to-one, and those 50 and older divided. Almost three-quarters of
Americans surveyed -- 72 percent -- said legal recognition of same-sex
marriage is "inevitable." This included 59 percent of opponents.
Tide Turning
With states from California to Maine legalizing same-sex marriage,
Freedom to Marry says more than 38 percent of the U.S. population
lives in a state that either permits same-sex marriage or honors
out-of-state marriages.
The tide of public opinion turning toward acceptance of homosexuality
is driven in part by businesses that can't afford discrimination, said
E. Joshua Rosenkranz, a lawyer who represented 100 companies in a U.S.
Supreme Court brief opposing a California ban on same-sex marriage
last year. These include Apple Inc. (AAPL), General Electric Co. and
Google Inc.
"A lot of opinion leaders are realizing that this is a moment in time
where they have to decide whether they want to be on the right side of
history, because they know how history will judge this debate,"
Rosenkranz said.
"You see Republicans now wrestling with which side of the line they're
going to be on politically," Rosenkranz said. That would never have
happened "10 or I think even five years ago, unless you had a daughter
who was a lesbian."
Companies Engaged
After years of not taking a stand on social issues, hundreds of large
corporations signed a brief for the Supreme Court last year in favor
of overturning the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act. In Indiana,
Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) and Cummins Inc. (CMI) each donated $100,000 to
a campaign opposed to a proposed amendment banning gay unions.
After the Supreme Court overturned a key part of the law blocking
federal recognition of same-sex marriages, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
presided over the marriage of two men inWashington in September.
Still, there is no inevitability in the debate about homosexuality
because most major religions are clear about it, despite how the
mainstream media portray the issue, said Brian Brown, president of the
National Organization for Marriage in Washington.
"These questions don't change the fundamental truth of traditional
sexual morality that men and women are made for each other, that
there's something unique about that," Brown said. "For Catholics and
Christians and Muslims and others, homosexual acts are sinful."
Divisive Issue
Green, of the University of Akron, says the 51 percent approval of gay
marriage isn't simply growing acceptance, it's also a measure of how
divisive the issue remains.
"While public opinion is changing, it's not changing everywhere at the
same rate," he said. "This is causing the issue of homosexuality
generally, but also the issue of same-sex marriage, to be more
divisive."
In Russia, Putin has adopted a more conservative ideology since
returning to the presidency in 2012, maintaining close ties with the
Russian Orthodox Church to fight the spread of homosexuality and
feminism, which he blames for spurring dissent against his rule, Mole
says.
"His policy is very much like that of the Russian czars: It's based on
orthodoxy and keeping the Western idea out," Mole said.
Putin's Defense
Putin has defended Russia's record on gay rights, telling ABC
television in January that it is about protecting children and has
"nothing to do with persecuting individuals for their nontraditional
orientation."
Homosexuality remains a crime in 70 countries and "some U.S. states,"
Putin said, while in Russia, "everybody is absolutely equal to anybody
else, irrespective of one's religion, sex, ethnicity or sexual
orientation."
Putin's popularity rating reached a two-year high in the last two
weeks, which may be attributed to the Olympic games in Sochi -- where
Russian athletes won more medals than any other nation, Russian
pollster VTsIOM said on Feb. 26.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed legislation imposing a
14-year prison sentence for conviction of an initial homosexual act
and the possibility of life imprisonment for convictions of further
homosexual relations.
Evangelical leaders from the U.S., including Scott Lively, with a
Kansas City-based ministry, traveling in Uganda and addressing
lawmakers there have promoted stronger laws against homosexuality. Yet
Lively has issued a statement saying the law "takes the wrong
approach," and that the "agenda should be on rehabilitation and
prevention, not punishment."
38 Nations
Homosexuality is illegal in 38 of 54 African nations, according to
Amnesty International.
There is a potential economic price to pay. The gains that Uganda's
shilling made as the second-best performing African currency this year
are evaporating following Museveni's penalties against homosexuals.
The shilling has slumped about 2.9 percent against the dollar since he
signed the bill on Feb. 24, the biggest decline among all currencies.
In the first seven weeks of the year, the shilling rose 3.1 percent.
Obama, in a statement issued by the White House, called Uganda's law
"a serious setback for all those around the world who share a
commitment to freedom, justice and equal rights."
The issue is far from settled in the U.S. The newly elected Democratic
attorney general of Virginia, Mark Herring, is challenging the
constitutionality of his state's prohibition on gay marriage, and a
judge in Texas this week overturned that state's ban on gay marriage.
Arizona Law
In Arizona, the governor this week vetoed a bill passed by the
legislature that would have allowed businesses, based on their
religious beliefs, to deny service to gays.
The business measure was pushed by the Center for Arizona Policy, a
"pro-family" organization declaring that "marriages and families would
be strengthened by public policy, not attacked or weakened."
Before making her decision, Governor Jan Brewer had fielded calls to
reject the bill from interests as varied as Delta Air Lines (DAL)and
Apple, as well as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
"I have not heard one example in Arizona where a business owner's
religious liberties have been violated," Brewer, a Republican, said at
a Feb. 26 news conference in Phoenix announcing her veto. "The bill is
broadly worded and could result in unintended and negative
consequences."
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Silva in Washington at
msilva34@bloomberg.net; Mark Niquette in Columbus at
mniquette@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cesca Antonelli at
fantonelli@bloomberg.net
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