The West should rethink its approach for promoting gay rights abroad and instead focus on strengthening democracy and civil society

How should Europe and the United States seek to promote gay rights across the world? Omar G. Encarnación writes that while the West has tended to adopt a model which seeks to ‘shame’ states that discriminate against homosexuals, in many cases this may be self-defeating and could even increase the prevalence of discrimination within the target country. Reasoning that strong democratic foundations are a prerequisite for gay rights, he argues that a better approach would be to focus on promoting democracy, civil society and the rule of law.