In an attempt to promote gay rights around the world, the United States treated ambassadors from 14 nations and the European Union to a special March 1 performance of the Broadway musical Fun Home, according to Reuters.
The U.S. mission to the United Nations also got tickets for ambassadors from the Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, Gabon, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Uruguay and Vietnam.
The Tony-winning musical tells the story of a young woman's coming-of-age as a lesbian and her relationship with her father, a closeted gay man.
Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as quoted saying that the show “brings home the challenges that LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) are facing every day around the world.”
Efforts to win acceptance and legal protections for gay women and men has faced challenges in the U.S., but even greater challenges in many foreign countries. In several, homosexuality, let alone gay marriage, is still a crime.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced in 2014 that the UN would recognize same-sex marriage on the organization’s staff, but 43 countries, including Russia, tried to overturn the decision, Reuters reported.
Instead of further political maneuvering, the U.S. decided to try a Broadway musical. “Thank you for bringing this all home in a way that resolutions and statements never can,” Power reportedly told the cast after the performance.
