Don't We Have More Pressing Issues Than Gay Marriage in Africa?

America is still--in spite of Obama--a beacon for the world. The American president's words still carry a certain amount of clout (which is why we all got worked up when he apologized and bowed to everyone we've ever slightly offended, but I digress). So why are we getting involved in sovereign issues in Liberia and other sub-Saharan African nations?

On January 19, three days after Clinton attended the second-term inauguration ceremony of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, Sirleaf's press secretary announced that she would veto any legislation allowing gays to wed or legalizing homosexuality. In February, a Liberian lawmaker introduced legislation that would ban gay marriage. The bill, an amendment to existing legislation banning incestuous marriages and polygamy, would make gay marriage a first-degree felony, with prison sentences of up to ten years. Later in the month, another legislator introduced a bill that would make "same-sex sexual practices" a second-degree felony, carrying up to five years in prison. The bill would also make it a crime to "purposefully engage in acts that arouses or tend to arouse another person of the same gender (male/female) to have sexual intercourse." Both pieces of legislation are currently being reviewed in committee.

Two telling things here; first, that it was Hillary who spoke the words for Obama and second that the Liberian president went right out and vetoed the legislation. That's a woman saying you have only limited clout in Liberia Madam Secretary.

But more telling is that Obama says he is against gay marriage in the US and sends his proxy to lobby for gay marriage in a part of the world where it's frowned upon to the point that they actually are debating making gay sex a crime. Typical Obama response on an issue: for political reasons he's anti-gay marriage in the US but thinks he can tell others what to do.

If the anti-gay bias of another nation is so important, why not come down hard on the nation that is so anti-gay that homosexuals face being stoned to death and the leader of said nation actually uttered the words that there are no gays in his country? Why, because that would take balls and our president sorely lacks them.