Chris Carter is a 2nd Year Politics Student and Labour Councillor for Loughborough Ashby. His new regular column for Label Magazine will be republished Online once a fortnight.
I’m going to do something I rarely do. I’m going to agree entirely with David Cameron. That is with regards to his announcement on the Andrew Marr Show; countries that outlaw homosexuality should have their foreign aid cut.
41 of all 54 Commonwealth countries have some form of anti-gay legislation. In India, anyone found to be engaging in homosexual activity could receive up to ten years in prison until 2009.
It’s about time we actually did something about countries which have such medieval legislation to prevent the right to sexual activity between humans. Cutting foreign aid to such major offenders is something that should have been done long ago; political pressure on these countries has proved to simply not be enough.
Cutting financial aid to the worst offenders seems to be the only means to make countries that outlaw homosexuality respond to the modernising and changing world that we live in. Uganda not so long ago received international condemnation, for attempting to introduce a bill that would lead to the death penalty for anybody caught engaging in homosexual activity.
My advice to the Prime Minister would simply be to never turn a blind eye to this issue and consider putting it higher on the international agenda, whilst also ensuring our friends in the Commonwealth of Nations take it upon themselves to change their own perceptions on gay rights.
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