The Trump administration is launching a global effort to end the criminalization of homosexuality. About time, isn't it?

Give what up? I didn't report it, NBC News did. Read the story for yourself.

I wasn't directing that at YOU.  I was directing that at the question.  Baloney.  Pure baloney.

Then why would NBC News report it?

Because it qualifies as "news" to most people?

They've been allowed for several years, and it's not for President Trump to decide. Here's the relevant info from Wikipedia:

In 2010, two federal courts ruled the ban on openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual service personnel unconstitutional, and on July 6, 2011, a federal appeals court suspended the DADT policy. In December 2010, the House and Senate passed and President Barack Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010,and under its provisions, restrictions on service by gay, lesbian, and bisexual personnel ended as of September 20, 2011.

Maybe ... but he has stated repeatedly that he doesn't want them in the military.
Which is why I was wondering if this new policy means he has changed his mind - or is just looking for a distraction.

Since it was ruled on by the federal appeals court, what he may want or not want is irrelevant.

The relevancy is his motivations.
Has he really had a "change of heart"?  Or perhaps he didn't believe his anti-homosexual position in the first place, and was only using it to increase the leverage with his base?  Or perhaps this is a distraction for something else he hopes people won't see?

Who knows?

Simply because I am gay I have "dropped out" and "kissed off my societal responsibilities"? And "I only exist for myself"?
Wrong. Very wrong.
But I'm sure there are some people who are gay who may fit those blanket statements.
I also see a great many people who are straight who could possibly fit those characteristics, too.

And you don't "see any problem" for me to be declared a criminal simply because I'm gay. That seems to contradict your statement that people "should be able to do what they want." And I didn't "want" to be or ask to be gay -- it's simply me. 



With some personal challenges I've had in the recent past, I may not be in the best frame of mind to have posted my reply here. But I posted this as more of a self-affirmation -- that I'm a worthwhile person, all of me. And I'm trying to live a quality life, beneficial both to me and to everyone else.

This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at February 21, 2019 12:15 AM MST

Hello there Welby
I certainly would not question your "state of mind", as you gave a brilliant answer to the above comment..

But according the the following part of the story, there are gay people serving in his administration:

U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest-profile openly gay person in the Trump administration, is leading the effort, which kicks off Tuesday evening in Berlin. The U.S. embassy is flying in LGBT activists from across Europe for a strategy dinner to plan to push for decriminalization in places that still outlaw homosexuality — mostly concentrated in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean.

Doesn't appear to jibe with your narrative or, perhaps, your bias.

The proposition is an exercise in hubris. Let’s give it the same odds as “World Peace”, or “going paperless”. 

There is precious little chance that western white men can upend the zeitgeist in such places as I describe. A noble objective, but I think you show a common western bias in that you don’t recognize that people in these locales truly, deeply believe what they say they believe. The Quran condemns homosexuals to death. Sort of offsets the possibility of decriminalizing them in Muslim Theocracies, don’t you think?

That Trump embraces this effort, if indeed he truly does, is mighty convenient in an election cycle before which he has demonstrated his bias against (besides anyone who doesn’t give complete fealty) gays in the military, and at the altar. 

Whatever bias I may demonstrate, it is rooted in the consistent failure of a historically bad president to live up to his claims, value facts or demonstrate admirable qualities. 




This post was edited by Don Barzini at February 20, 2019 7:35 PM MST

Being "biased" involves unfairness in one's position for or against something---just wondering why you suggest that bias is involved.

Being biased also can entail refusing to believe or accept information that conflicts with a preconceived agenda. That's something that quite a few folks on here know something about, and that's the meaning in this case.

Bias when used in this instance is a pejorative. 

I think we should stop trying to Westernize the East.  Get out and stay out.  Everyone around the world does not have to have the same ideas, ideals, beliefs, laws, or anything else.  Global anything is not going to work.  We will never all be happy being forced to live the same way with a world order shoving one set of ideals down our throats.  I hope people fight it until the end of time. 

Even if that means doing nothing about the violation of basic human rights? Was it wrong to go after, for example, Hitler and stop all of his persecution and mass murder?

That was one  man trying to extinguish a race.  The Middle East/East is a part of the world that operates differently from the West.  Things they accept in their culture we think is horrible and we would not tolerate it.  Things we tolerate they would remove our heads.  There is no reason to try to have a whole world of similarly thinking people.  It is not going to happen.  All humans will never agree as to what is a basic human right.