{"id":31343,"date":"2021-02-17T06:24:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T05:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=31343"},"modified":"2021-02-17T06:24:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T05:24:15","slug":"bidens-lgbtqi-policy-sparks-response-elsewhere-but-what-does-the-nigerian-govt-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=31343","title":{"rendered":"Biden&#8217;s LGBTQI Policy Sparks Response Elsewhere, But What Does The Nigerian Govt Say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Biden\u2019s Policy to Condition Aid on Protecting LGBTQI Rights Sparks Pushback in Africa<\/strong><br \/><br \/>By <strong>Douglas G. Burton<\/strong> (Epoch Times)<br \/><br \/>The Biden administration has renewed a range of priorities from the Obama years, expanding engagement worldwide to include conditioning U.S. foreign aid on protections for gays and lesbians.<br \/><br \/>On Feb. 2, President Joe Biden announced to African leaders in a virtual summit conference on Zoom that the United States was \u201cpromoting\u201d the rights of LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex) individuals. Biden emphasized to the African Union that diplomacy would stress multilateral agreements, shared interests in democracy, health security against COVID-19, and helping nations adapt to climate impacts.<br \/><br \/>Two days later, Biden told State Department employees, \u201cAmerica is back, Diplomacy is back,\u201d as he indicated he would be halting or reversing a wide range of foreign policy initiatives by former President Donald Trump. An executive memorandum issued that same day spelled out his administration\u2019s broader vision, including the protections for LGBTQI individuals.<br \/><br \/>\u201cAgencies involved with foreign aid, assistance, and development programs should consider the impact of programs funded by the Federal Government on human rights, including the rights of LGBTQI+ persons, when making funding decisions, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law,\u201d according to a memorandum for executive heads of agencies and departments listed on the Federal Register.<br \/><br \/>The memorandum included a comprehensive list of agencies that contribute billions of dollars of aid to African nations annually.<br \/><br \/>\u201cFor the purpose of this memorandum, agencies engaged abroad include the Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, and such other agencies as the President may designate,\u201d according to section seven of the document.<br \/><br \/>\u201cMy Administration is committing to rebuilding our partnerships with nations around the world and reengaging with international institutions like the African Union,\u201d he told the 34th Annual African Union Summit conference in Addis Ababa. \u201cWe must all work together to advance our shared vision of a future of growing trade and investment that advances the prosperity for all of our nations\u2026 a future committed to investing in our democratic institutions and promoting the human rights of all people: women and girls, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities and people of every ethnic background, religion, and heritage.\u201d<br \/><br \/>Pushback<br \/>That memorandum has triggered some pushback among West Africans.<br \/><br \/>The Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Ghana\u2019s Minister-designate for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, responded that Ghana wouldn\u2019t comply with the new guidelines.<br \/><br \/>\u201cGhana is a sovereign country but as part of our foreign policy, we engage countries all over the world; America is one of our strongest friends. But in this country we have laws. And our laws work and must work,\u201d Botchwey told a legislative confirmation hearing, as reported by Ghana Web on Feb. 12.<br \/><br \/>\u201cSo in spite of what somebody will say and, in this case, President Biden, the laws of Ghana criminalize unlawful carnal knowledge and therefore, the laws of Ghana definitely are supreme and that is what we all adhere to,\u201d she reportedly said.<br \/><br \/>Rev. Ladi Peter Thompson, a Lagos-based special adviser on security threats to the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told the Epoch Times, \u201cIt\u2019s a fact that the global resurgence of terrorism is tearing Africa apart. There is a dark cloud on the horizon, and the meltdown of Africa\u2019s most populous nation is a specter that nobody wants to imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-everyday-ng\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/everyday.ng\/ladies-thoompson-takes-on-biden-us-administration-on-homosexuality-others\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Biden administration, however, holds forth as the flagship of its policy toward African nations the threat of financial muscle to promote the LGBTI community in Africa,\u201d he said. \u201cPresident Biden would do humankind a great favor by globalizing the American Dream, of which the essence is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Africans love that,\u201d he said.<br \/><br \/>\u201cBut one thing Africans don\u2019t want is the American nightmare, where the rights go rogue, and the rights are wrong,\u201d he added.<br \/><br \/>Africa-watchers in the United States also expressed concern.<br \/><br \/>A co-founder of The International Committee on Nigeria (ICON), which reports on the genocidal civil war in Nigeria, sees the new policy stance as unbalanced.<br \/><br \/>\u201cPolicy and funding discussions about LGBTQ initiatives are misplaced and affect the millions suffering in Nigeria,\u201d Kyle Abts, co-founder of ICON, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times. \u201cMilitants continue to run rampant with impunity. More than 3,500 died in 2020 and over 90,000 over the past 20 years. The economy is failing because of terrorism, instability, and corruption.\u201d<br \/><br \/>\u201cThere are two overarching problems gripping the continent of Africa, besides the chronic problem of development and COVID-19,\u201d Frank Gaffney, executive chairman of the Center for Security Policy, told The Epoch Times. \u201cThose are the rising threats of Sharia supremacism and Chinese colonization. The Biden team seems to ignore both.<br \/><br \/>\u201cWhen Biden says \u2018America is back,\u2019 what he means is that America is back to the failed policies of the Obama administration, which focused on multilateralism and social engineering. Neither advances America\u2019s interest nor those of the people involved,\u201d he said.<br \/><br \/>\u201cIf Biden has love for Africans and desires to help them, he should do so in the areas of security and counter-terrorism, infrastructures, health care, power and communications, and visa reforms,\u201d said Sylvester Okere, a respected African diaspora community leader, who spoke to Epoch Times.<br \/><br \/>\u201cAfricans can do robust business with America. Africans are business-minded, industrious people. Washington\u2019s guidance on morality is not what the people need,\u201d Okere said, as he recounted what Kenya President Uhuru Kenyata reportedly once told President Obama, \u201cYou cannot give to people what they themselves do not want.\u201d<br \/><br \/>The White House didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.<br \/><br \/>\u25aa\ufe0e https:\/\/m.theepochtimes.com\/bidens-policy-conditioning-aid-on-protecting-lgbtqi-rights-arouses-pushback-in-africa_3699207.html<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biden\u2019s Policy to Condition Aid on Protecting LGBTQI Rights Sparks Pushback in Africa By Douglas G. Burton (Epoch Times) The Biden administration has renewed a range of priorities from the Obama years, expanding engagement worldwide to include conditioning U.S. foreign aid on protections for gays and lesbians. On Feb. 2, President Joe Biden announced to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5777],"tags":[1728,2893,249],"class_list":["post-31343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features","tag-biden","tag-lgbtqi","tag-nigeria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}