“America is back,” said Biden about a week ago. But which America, and whose America, is back? The answer to this questions was given earlier in a Presidential Memorandum, wherein he threatened to sanction countries which are still reluctant to make laws to promote, accommodate and perhaps even expand the rights and privileges of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) people. The Memorandum seeks a worldwide plan to strengthen the protection of LGBTQI+ rights, in such a way that it would be taken for granted that humanity must now collectively drive a new global priority under this umbrella of rights. But is this continuation of the Obama government’s agenda of driving LGBTQI+ issues willy-nilly as welcome as they are making it seem? Should all mankind tremble and fall in line because an American president has announced that his country would roll out sanctions against other countries which do not subscribe to America’s preferred values? Can he even do that in US states which are yet to fall in line in this regard? Can he do anything about the legislative federalist orientation of the American State, despite a respected Supreme Court?
What warrants Biden’s presumption? In what way did it make sense to him to pass his country off as defender of humanity and protector of the ideal values? Is America, with its daily murder records in New York City alone, and its many socio-culturally disruptive engagements all over the world, really in a position to speak about guiding the world to greater sanity? By what universal standard was Nigeria rightly classified a “homophobic” country; as was done under Obama, because of the country’s anti-gay law? Surely a US president who was Vice President when the Nigerian anti-gay law was passed, despite great pressures from the Obama government where he was Vice President, would be out to “call Nigeria to order?” So, watch out! The drama is only just beginning. With Nigeria deemed an anti-LGBTQI+ country, Biden’s threat of “…financial sanctions, visa restrictions, and other sanctions” targeted at “…foreign governments” that “restrict the rights of LGBTQI+ persons…” applies here. Worse still, Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris, is as dead set on pro-Gay values as anyone can be. Go. Look at her public position on the matter, including her submission on what to do about homeless homosexuals.
For the record, the foregoing and subsequent comments here today constitute no evaluation or judgment on the antics of the Trump Administration one way or another. This column did not, for once, comment on the person of Donald Trump before, during, or after his stint in the White House. He was, in my view, a historical necessity. His tenure as president threw up much about America that needed recalibration and reconsideration, especially along deep fault lines the country was pretending did not exist.
Returning to our subject matter for today, the question for us now is whether, after the peculiarly laughable celebration of a Biden Victory, the Buhari administration will find itself under pressures from the US government to change the country’s stance on gay marriage. It most likely will be under pressure to do so. In fact, it is already under that pressure, based on Biden’s Presidential Memorandum. When Biden says: “The United States belongs at the forefront of this struggle – speaking out and standing strong for our most dearly held values”, does he consider that “our most dearly held values” in Nigeria are not American values? Since when did America start speaking for all climes? When Biden speaks of “…enforcing freedoms and promoting tolerance,” does he consider that he is the President of the US, rather than the earth? Does he even look at the overall impact of the US on “rights” with regards to global peace, climate change and morality? Less than two months into the Biden presidency, what are we seeing and what do the things we are seeing portend?
On November 23, 2020, this column carried a piece with the title “Biden and the Global Gender Crisis.” That article observed as follows: “The Obama Government threatened Nigeria with official sanctions, when the National Assembly passed a law against same-sex marriage. The Obama government also refused to sell arms to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram. It also discouraged other countries from selling arms to Nigeria; even as thousands were being slaughtered every day. The argument, then, was that the Nigerian government was not respecting the human rights of the terrorists! …The Obama Presidency stood out in its promotion of gay relationships under the LGTBQ+ movement.”
The same piece raised the following questions: “Why are world leaders, especially of the nations classified as “developed,” desperate to “level humanity” and deny any core values? Why are many “globally significant” individuals working towards the globalization of all manner of lifestyles and a values pyramid with a controlling few at the top holding sway with skewed values? Why are most world figures speaking of freedoms and rights, but not of knowledge and true humanity? Why are they talking of making people happy but saying nothing about the true meaning of happiness?” Does Biden’s Presidential Memorandum, wherein he seeks to “… further repair our (America’s) moral leadership…” which also seeks to “reinvigorate our (America’s) leadership on the LGBTQI+ issues internationally…” not showcase a national megalomania that verges on the incomprehensible?
My Exclusive Commentary of December 5, 2020, in the Houston-based USAfrica, titled “Will Biden Impose Alternative Lifestyles on Africans?” spoke of the “dangers” of a Biden presidency for non-enthusiasts of gay marriage and anti-gay advocacy. The publication began thus: “On January 2021, upon being sworn in as president of the United States, Joe Biden will begin to reconnect with many “globally significant” individuals towards the globalization of new (alternative) lifestyles and values pyramid. ‘The Return of all the freedom enjoyed under Barrack Obama’ is already the mantra of many who are cheering the November 2020 election of Joe Biden as president. The Obama administration – where Biden served as vice president for eight years, 2009 to 2017 – threatened Nigeria with sanctions for passing a law against same-sex marriage. That presidency diligently promoted the same sex agenda and Gay relationships with the LGBTQ+ movement and created a new world for the exercise of those ‘rights’ when in 2016, Donald trump barged in bared teeth and all.”
Continuing, the write-up in question said: “I believe that the Biden Presidency, itself a reincarnation of the Obama Presidency, will still use soft and strong tactics to deny any core values. They will speak of freedoms and rights, but not of knowledge and true humanity. They will speak of making people happy, but say little about the true meaning of happiness… Welcome to a world that will provide much funding and orchestrated media support for every endeavour that promotes and protects all manner of rights, without asking whether the rights in question add positive values to our humanity.” No matter how innocuous and uncoordinated it might seem, it is all well planned and well-choreographed.
Speaking in predictive terms, and this is being confirmed as I write, the article under reference here noted as follows: “Biden is likely to drive the growing insistence that LGBTQI+ be allowed in the military service of many nations. He will catalyze the progressive inclusion of LGBTQI+ history and themes in public education, as well as the deliberate projection of new identities and lifestyles that encourage heterosexuals to go into homosexual relationships… His plan to seek and obtain special treatment for homosexuals and interfere with gender distinctions, which are all in line with the LGBTQI+ campaign spelt out in Marshal Kirk and Hunter Madsen’s 1987 Essay, “The Overhauling of Straight America,” is well known. This work, which urged Gays to project themselves in ways that would make the world to think of them as normal people who prefer to do certain things differently, was updated years later, in the book “After the Ball: How America will Conquers its Fear of Gays in the 90s.” The latter work mapped out a public relations strategy for the movement. And it is working.” Yes, it is!
Which is why, as said in the USAfrica article: “Oklahoma Senator, Tom Coburn, in 2004, saw the gay movement as a more pressing danger than terrorism. In 2005, James Dobson, Director of Focus on the Family, described the homosexual agenda as including “universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting paedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies.” Could these observations be possibly true? Can we say that the signals from Biden’s infant presidency are reassuring? Should we expect real strong arms tactics, going forward? Perhaps we not only should expect them, but actually watch out for those tactics. Wait a minute, they are already here with us!
The concerns raised in the USAfrica article of last year include the following: “The questions, especially for many in Africa, are: Can someone wake up one day, declare himself a camel, and demand that we accept his new identity and allow him to graze in the public park; or in his neighbour’s garden? Was the Obama Presidency guided by a fundamental distortion of the very concepts of human nature and human freedom? Does a redefinition of what it means to be human, and of what “gender” means, not also mean a redefinition of the notion of “human” rights and new notions of right and wrong, etc.? considering that the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, the question today is whether “God’s Own Country” has not been taken over by those who have actually declared war against God. Many major institutions with global reach and muscle appear to be involved.”
Need I say more, as we watch the many nebulous hopes woven around an undefined Biden Presidency go up in smoke?
Credit: Okey Ikechukwu, Thisday