Tony Blair Refuses Comment on Gay Rights in Africa

The Guardian has published an article about an interview between Tony Blair and the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson. In it, Johnson defends the law that criminalises homosexual acts, saying: “We like ourselves the way we are.”

She adds, “We've got certain traditional values in our society that we would like to preserve.”

Blair was left looking visibly uncomfortable by her remarks. Yet, when pushed to make a comment on the UN Secretary General’s remarks at an African Union Summit earlier this year (when Ban Ki-Moon urged African leaders to respect gay rights and to stop treating gay people as second hand citizens and criminals), Blair disgracefully refused to comment. “I'm not saying these issues aren't important, but the president has given her position and this is not one for me."

Blair was in Liberia in his capacity as the founder of the Africa Governance Initiative, a charity he founded that aims to strengthen African governments. Unlike US Secretary of State Clinton, who announced in December that the US foreign Aid budget would promote the protection of gay rights, Blair chickened out by saying that gay rights are not something he was prepared to get involved in as an adviser to African leaders.

Not so long ago, a senior Palestinian official stated that Blair was no longer trusted as an impartial mediator – "he talks like an Israeli diplomat” - and wanted him axed as the Middle East Peace Envoy. In that role for several years, he has achieved precisely nothing! Now on behalf of his charity, he refuses to face up to a critical issue. "One of the advantages of doing what I do now is I can choose the issues I get into and the issues I don't. For us, the priorities are around power, roads, jobs delivery."

During his time as Prime Minister, Blair championed gay rights. Now that he’s paid handsomely to advise governments, he abandons what we thought was one of his core beliefs.

As for President Johnson, last year she won the Nobel Peace Prize. Both are a disgrace!

http://www.guardian....w-homosexuality