Rick Perry on Tuesday condemned
President Barack Obama's plan to tie some foreign aid to gay rights.
The president issued a memorandum
directing all agencies engaged abroad to make certain U.S. aid
programs “promote and protect” the rights of gay people.
The memo instructs agencies to increase
government and civil society engagement in an effort to promote gay
rights, including combating criminalization of LGBT status or conduct
abroad, and requires agencies to submit an annual report detailing
their progress toward advancing LGBT issues.
“This administration's war on
traditional American values must stop,” Perry
wrote at his campaign website. “I have proposed a foreign aid
budget that starts at zero. From that zero baseline, we will
consider aid requests based solely on America's national security
interests.”
“But there is a troubling trend here
beyond the national security nonsense inherent in this silly idea.”
“This is just the most recent example
of an administration at war with people of faith in this country.
Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americans of faith
find so deeply objectionable is wrong.”
“President Obama has again mistaken
America's tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of
those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake,” he added.
(Related: Rick
Santorum pans Obama's gay rights decision.)