US: Vice President Joe Biden says gay rights should trump cultural and social traditions
On Tuesday the White House hosted the first LGBT Human Rights Forum, where Vice President Joe Biden stated gay rights must trump cultural and social traditions around the world.
Biden informed a room of 100 guests at the Vice Presidential mansion: “I don’t care what your culture is. Inhumanity is inhumanity is inhumanity. Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice.”
Nearly 80 countries are establishing damaging anti-gay laws; Biden stated that US officials throughout the government are making the support for gay rights abroad a priority. He warns: “there is a price to pay,” if countries fail to move toward the protection of what Biden has labeled “the civil rights issue of our day.”
White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice said earlier at the same event: “With more voices to enrich and amplify the message – the message that gay rights are straight-up human rights – we can open more minds.”
Tuesday’s event was the most recent in a string of significant administrative efforts made by the White House to endorse LGBT rights in the US and internationally.
Recently Obama has placed sanctions on Ugandan officials who have violated the rights of LGBT citizens, announced he will sign an executive order banning federal contractors from sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination against employees and granted new benefits to same-sex couples in the US, including those who live in states where gay marriage is illegal.
