Obama has decided that the United States is going to use foreign aid to promote gay rights abroad:

“I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting L.G.B.T. persons around the world,” Mr. Obama said in the memorandum, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, “whether it is passing laws that criminalize L.G.B.T. status, beating citizens simply for joining peaceful L.G.B.T. pride celebrations, or killing men, women and children for their perceived sexual orientation.”

Some people are unhappy about this:

The initiative also invites attacks from Republicans trying to appeal to a conservative base in the primary and caucus states.

One Republican candidate, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, said: “President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake.”

It could also irritate some American allies, including countries like Turkey, where there have been reports of harassment, and Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is banned and sex between people of the same sex is punishable by death or flogging.

I *almost* left this one to Ed Brayton, but a lot of what people are saying on Perry and gay rights fails to capture how loathsome his position is.

I’m starting to think the following is a law in American politics: no matter how bad the Democrats are, the Republicans will find a way to be worse. Given that, the Democrats may as well try to behave like decent people, political expediency be damned, because even if they lose they at least might drag the Republicans towards being halfway decent.