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By Newsweek Editors
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Our Sept. 17 cover story on gay rights led readers to share their nation's position on the issue. One wrote, "Israel's gays are protected under law as in Europe." Another opined, "The Western formula may be unfit for all." A third said, "When two adults commit to each other, that's their business."
A Premier Development Agency?
I am writing in response to the Sept. 17 Periscope piece "The New Bush Politics of Aid." Since taking office, George W. Bush has nearly tripled foreign-assistance investments, overseeing the largest increase in development assistance since the Marshall Plan of 1947. In his FY2008 budget request, the president increased assistance for the poorest countries by some 20 percent, including funding for HIV/AIDS, malaria, education and good governance. The administration's focus on poverty is not just about increasing funding but about using those funds wisely. The U.S. Agency for International Development is addressing the root causes of poverty, such as the lack of institutional capacity on the part of governments to meet the needs of their people. In so doing, we work to leverage taxpayer-funded development resources for maximum impact and return. We are fully committed to having USAID maintain a diverse and skilled work force and remaining the premier development agency for the United States and the world.
Henrietta Holsman Fore
Acting Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and Acting USAID Administrator
Washington, D.C.
Fighting for Global Gay Rights
I read with great interest "Winning the War: Why the Battle for Gay Rights Is Gaining Ground Across the Globe" (Sept. 17). However, I was extremely disappointed to see that the Middle East is mentioned only briefly: "Homosexuality remains taboo throughout the greater Middle East." Israel is located in the Middle East, and it has a visible gay community that is protected under the law, similar to laws in Western Europe. Just to mention a few of the milestones in Israel: it has had an openly gay man elected to the Knesset (Parliament), and gays are permitted to serve in the armed forces (unlike in the United States). Although gay marriages are not permitted in Israel, those performed outside the country are recognized (again, in contrast to the United States, where such marriages are not generally recognized). Of course, there are social prejudices that exist against gays, as in many other countries of the world, but it is indisputable that Israel is at the forefront of gay rights. To ignore Israel's position on this issue, especially when compared with those of the country's immediate neighbors, does a great disservice to its human-rights record. In fact, Palestinian gays have gone to Israel as a sanctuary to escape persecution and possible death.
Jonathan Kohn
Osaka, Japan
Read More on World
In your Sept. 17 cover story, "Winning the War: Why the Battle for Gay Rights Is Gaining Ground Across the Globe," your writers cast a positive light on the global spread of gay power from the West, and much emphasis was placed on the Western model as an exclusive idea. However, such convenient attribution of the Western model as a means to an end is disturbing, since it ignores the different cultural standards and political climates in each country. In Singapore, marriage (of the heterosexual variety) serves an important purpose, as emphasized by the government's constant rhetoric about inadequate indigenous repopulation. There is a need for foreign talent, and there are incentives for the local population to reproduce, as people are the most vital resource here. But same-sex marriage has nothing to offer in terms of oiling the capitalist machinery, which is fueled by markets and populations. Unless the lure of the pink dollar from gay foreign talent, as Ian McKellen says in his interview (" 'The Sky Didn't Fall In' "), constitutes a more viable economic factor than the repopulation of the local work force, gay rights will not be legalized here. This argument also holds for the tolerance of homosexuality in our society, though this notion is becoming more palatable with time. Besides, you portray the West as a homogeneous cultural entity, but there is evidence of differing levels of tolerance of homosexuality even in Western countries. Of course, different cultural and political climates do not mean that we cannot hold a common moral premise. Rather, the Western formula may be unfit as a one-for-all solution.
Pong Shi Min
Singapore
In May, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Brazil, the world's most populous Roman Catholic nation, only 1 million of the faithful showed up in Sào Paulo to see him. But when gays held their annual parade the following month in the same city, 3 million participated. Brazilians seem to be favoring gays over religious dogma.
Marshal A. Phillips
Curitiba, Brazil
The cover of your Sept. 17 issue depicts two homosexuals holding hands. Admittedly, we are in a free world where there has been significant progress in establishing human rights in increasingly open-minded societies. But there are a vast number of us who still maintain old-fashioned traditional values, and we also have rights. Considering that your magazine is also read by children, perhaps you could have addressed the topic differently. I find your choice of this cover both inappropriate and offensive.
George A. Tsavliris
Piraeus, Greece
Gay lib has been dead as an issue for more than 20 years. Stories like "Winning the War" are tiresome now. When two adults want to commit themselves to each other contractually, that's their business.
Mark Wilkinson
Paris, France
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