BY JON ALEXANDER

With all the recent hype over Trump getting elected, Brexit, the Conservatives staying in power, you’d think that gay rights in the U.K. and U.S. were due to be ripped from us and everything we’ve achieved thrown out of the window.  Naturally, it was just that…hype.

Donald Trump was the only candidate to go into the election “pro-gay” as it were, both Obama and Clinton maintained marriage was between a man and a woman only recently changing their viewpoints and trying to claim credit for the change in rights.

Only 11 EU member countries allow gay marriage, the rights actually vary between each country, darling of the left Angela Merkel even voted against it in Germany, although the ‘Yes’ vote won and will see Germany embrace it in October 2017 bringing the total to twelve.  And the Conservatives brought in gay marriage, something they’re unlikely to override despite all the outrage over the DUP-deal.  In addition to this, we are now in ‘Pride Month’ in the UK where left-wing gays are proudly refusing to allow UKIP voters to join Pride Marches and booing any gays who have the audacity to vote for the Conservatives. The cup of acceptance, diversity and inclusion runneth over, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Now, as gay rights or ‘LGBT’ rights go, we’re not perfect, we still have a long way to go.  What is bizarre though is the left’s obsession with challenging every little thing – the opportunity to use whatever bathroom they want, 961 different pronouns on every document/website and the right to round up and imprison any straight men who won’t sleep with transgendered women. Yet through all this, the bigger battles are being ignored, gone are the days when international gay rights were at the forefront, where we were horrified to learn of gay individuals being imprisoned, tortured or murdered simply for being gay.

Thousands of people across Africa languish in prison (if they’re lucky), no-one will ever know how many more have been killed, or live in fear of their lives.  As recent as February 2014, Uganda’s President tried to implement a law making Homosexuality illegal yet very little was said by the crowds you would expect.  Why is that?  Have we become immune to their suffering?  No, I believe it’s a case of being too hard for the left to deal with, after all it would interfere with their beliefs and cause uncomfortable conversations they don’t want to have regarding religion, race and culture.

I think the U.K government has an opportunity here to take the lead and begin to change things for the better.

Let’s start with our foreign aid budget, is it possible to cancel our payments to any countries not giving rights to minorities in general?  I can see this going one of two ways, either it will cause the necessary changes required or it could result in another country making up the shortfall.

Can we stand back as, say Russia, suddenly starts investing and takes over from us?  We are in a bind when it comes to picking and choosing the countries we deal with.  Where do we draw the line in future trade deals/investments?  Do we discount China for its Human Rights record, or for those more concerned with the Yulin Dog Meat Festival?  Uganda for its anti-homosexuality laws?  Canada for its Seal Clubbing? Japan for its whaling?  Where do we draw the line?

Ken Loach, praised among the left for his ‘I Daniel’ film has recently called for a boycott of Israel, another easy target perhaps? Ken doesn’t seem that bothered that for gay people, Israel is one of the safest places in the middle east. Naturally, like all the great leftist Virtue Signallers, luvvie Ken is happy to allow his films to be shown in Israel and he doesn’t seem that upset pocketing from the proceeds either, must be nice not to be affected by the very same morals you impose on other people, mustn’t it?

How do we move forward with these anti-gay countries in ensuring homosexual men and women have the West’s luxury and privilege to be able to protest against a democratically elected President?  So that they too can sit and tweet about how oppressed they are before popping out to the local gay bar to be oppressed and walk around draped in a rainbow flag?  It’s a difficult situation that has no easy overnight solution, but surely by not even talking about it we are complicit in its continuing and depressing existence.

Being in jail in 2017 for being gay is not acceptable. Wake up people. Time to make Africa shape up or have its aid budgets slashed.