Walking With Integrity: White House Memorandum on LGBT Rights

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

White House Memorandum on LGBT Rights

Presidential Memorandum -- International Initiatives to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: International Initiatives to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons

The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons is a global challenge, and one that is central to the United States commitment to promoting human rights. I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting LGBT persons around the world whether it is passing laws that criminalize LGBT status, beating citizens simply for joining peaceful LGBT pride celebrations, or killing men, women, and children for their perceived sexual orientation.

That is why I declared before heads of state gathered at the United Nations, "no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere." Under my Administration, agencies engaged abroad have already begun taking action to promote the fundamental human rights of LGBT persons everywhere. Our deep commitment to advancing the human rights of all people is strengthened when we as the United States bring our tools to bear to vigorously advance this goal.

By this memorandum I am directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons. Specifically, I direct the following actions, consistent with applicable law:

Read the specifics here. ...

... and please, please, PLEASE do take a minute to say "thank you" for this powerful and prophetic step. We know the White House will be hearing from the "religious right" on this one ... let's make sure they hear from us, too. Here's the Contact the White House link to make it easy for you.

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Blog Faerie Commandments

Thou shalt be a current Integrity member; for as the
Psalmist says, “No good thing will YHWH withhold from those who walk with integrity.”
Thou shalt post legitimate news and public opinion
from recognized sources; for few blogs are fonts of true wisdom.
Thou shalt not post gossip; for it is serious sin that nobody preaches about anymore.
Thou shalt not include thine own opinions in posts; but thou mayest post thine own opinions using the comments feature.
Thou shalt not post hate speech nor engage in personal attacks against thy neighbor—neither in posts nor in comments. Love thy neighbor as thyself.
Though shalt post items that emphasize the LGBT-positive side of issues whenever possible; for there are more than enough blogs devoted to denegrating us.
Though shalt mostly post items dealing with LGBT
equality in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion; but thou mayest post some LGBT secular news and LGBT news from other faith traditions.
Thou shalt not post copyrighted material in its
entirety; for it is abhorrent to the United States government. Rather, thou shalt post an excerpt or summary with a link to the original source.
Thou shalt cite the original source (author,
title, affiliation, publisher, date) of a post whenever possible; thus may readers direct their rants and raves in the right direction.
Thou shalt be wise with the quantity of material thou posteth to the blog; for the reader unsubscription rate is inversely proportional to the number of daily posts.
Thou shalt replace shaped quotation marks and
apostrophies (“ ” ’) with straight equivalents (" " ') whenever possible; for shaped characters are not supported by all e-mail servers.
Though mayest embed YouTube and Google video clips in a post but thou shalt also provide a hyperlink to the clip; for the clip itself may be stripped out of the e-mail version.
Thou shalt include graphics with thine posts when possible; for plain text is really boring.