For conservatives, nothing symbolized this short-circuiting of debate so much as the decision to fly rainbow flags at U.S. embassies during Pride month. This practice, which began in 2011 during Barack Obama’s presidency, suggested that America’s formidable foreign-policy apparatus was being employed to support gay rights when, for example, 45 percent of the country opposed gay marriage. Whatever Cold War-era fondness conservatives still had for foreign aid quickly vanished. In 2011, after Ms. Clinton’s speech, Rick Perry, then the governor of Texas, said that support for L.G.B.T. rights abroad was “not in America’s interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money.”

 

This Is Why Conservatives Turned Against Foreign Aid

By Matthew Schmitz

Mr. Schmitz is the editor of the magazine Compact.