OPINION:
President Obama isn’t a big fan of free trade, but there’s one thing he’s striving mightily to export — homosexual rights (and sometimes homosexuals). It’s not a big seller in the developing world.
During his recent $100 million “working” vacation in Africa, Mr. Obama was upbraided by the president and vice president of his father’s native Kenya and got into a very public spat with the president of Senegal, all over homosexual rights and same-sex marriage.
On the initial leg of his weeklong trip, Mr. Obama took African nations to task for discriminating against homosexuals. Senegal is one of 38 African nations that criminalize “consensual same-sex conduct.” With hundreds of journalists watching, Mr. Obama traded barbs with Senegalese President Macky Sall. Mr. Sall told him bluntly: “We are not ready to decriminalize homosexuality.”
Senegal’s tabloid press came down firmly on the side of Mr. Macky. The newspaper Liberation, mocking Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign cry, declared: “No, we can’t.” According to a Pew poll, 96 percent of the Senegalese disapprove of the practice of homosexuality.
Mr. Obama’s gay evangelism continued on the other side of the African continent. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, at separate religious events Sunday, both rebuffed Mr. Obama’s overtures. Mr. Ruto said Kenya, which wasn’t even on Mr. Obama’s itinerary, “is a God-fearing nation,” and that it would uphold its strong religious strictures on homosexuality. The Pew poll found 90 percent of Kenyans think homosexuality is wrong.
Mr. Obama’s gay crusade isn’t limited to Africa. Religious leaders in the Dominican Republic are angry over Mr. Obama’s nomination of a homosexual activist to be the ambassador to the Caribbean island nation. The nomination of James Brewster, co-chairman for homosexual issues at the Democratic National Committee, has drawn the wrath of Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, the Catholic archbishop in the Dominican capital, and other religious leaders there. Vicar Pablo Cedano told The Associated Press that the nomination showed “a lack of respect, of consideration, that they send us that kind of person as ambassador.” They asked Dominican President Danilo Medino to reject the nomination.
Mr. Brewster is one of five open homosexuals nominated as envoys by Mr. Obama during the “Gay Pride Month” of June. The others are assigned to Australia, Denmark, Spain and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. When Mr. Obama first ran for president he promised he would bring a more intelligent, worldly foreign policy. Instead, he continues to turn that intelligent, worldly world against us, one nation at a time.
The Washington Times
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