US President Joe Biden, who promised to pursue a foreign policy that carries American “democratic values,” placed the rights of sexual minorities in the world among his priorities, more than any previous US president, unlike his predecessor, Donald Trump.
The Democratic president re-launched an initiative taken in 2011 by former President Barack Obama to "promote the rights of LGBT people around the world."
In his first foreign policy speech, President Biden Thursday asked US agencies overseas to submit an action plan within 180 days.
"All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity, and they must be able to live without fear, regardless of who they are and who they love," he wrote in a presidential memo issued on the same day.
In the context of his announcement of raising the number of refugees that the United States will receive after Trump tightened measures against immigrants during his reign, Biden promised in particular to "protect gay, transgender and bisexual asylum seekers."
And he asked his government to combat discriminatory laws abroad.
A senior State Department official told AFP that a special envoy would be appointed to "focus more attention on these issues."
In practice, the Biden administration has begun issuing its first warnings. The US State Department, through its spokesperson Ned Price, who is openly gay, strongly criticized Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched verbal attacks on sexual minorities.
LGBTQ activists welcome the shift.
And Jessica Stern of the pressure group "Out Right Action International" considers that "President Biden´s publication of this comprehensive presidential memo early in his term clearly shows that the matter is a political priority for him."
It expresses its hope that the US administration, along with several European countries, will increase its funding of non-governmental organizations.
However, she warns that American support to achieve results on the ground must sometimes be secret.
And Jessica Stern adds, "One of the most effective and proven ways to harm LGBT people and our movement is to accuse them of being a product of the West and a form of colonialism, given that their funding comes from foreign donors."
The senior State Department official said, "Our motto is always to listen to activists on the ground and work with them on these issues to take their opinion on how to move forward," pledging to approach each case separately.
The lessons learned from the Obama term may be helpful for the Biden administration.
The former Democratic president cut aid or canceled the preferential trade status of Uganda and The Gambia in response to laws punishing homosexuals with prison terms. However, Obama´s hard line prompted other countries, such as Nigeria, to adopt strict laws of their own.
Nonetheless, progress is tangible, even if slow. Same-sex relations are now legal in nearly two-thirds of the countries of the world, and 28 of them now allow two people of the same sex to marry, according to the International Organization of LGBT people.
Professor Philip Ayoub at Occidental College in California believes that local activists should be allowed to decide how to lead their fight.
This researcher explains, "Some say that it is too early to get out of the shadows completely because this may increase the level of violence in their society." "This kind of foreign policy cannot be imposed by the authorities. It should happen with caution, in partnership with civil society in every country," he added.
Trump was not satisfied with not defending this issue, but also retreating from the acquired rights of LGBTI people in the United States.
His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was a devout evangelical Christian who had never hidden his opposition to same-sex marriage. His critics have referred to earlier statements of him linking homosexuality to "homosexuality."
Pompeo put an end to granting entry visas to the United States to gay foreign diplomatic partners and prevented US embassies abroad from raising the rainbow flag during the days of the annual gay parade.
The hard-line governor also stressed defending "inalienable rights," a controversial formula that many societies denounce and consider it a way to narrow the margin of human rights by relying on a religious interpretation, especially at the expense of the rights of sexual minorities.
