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Notes -
Good question.
To steelman it in proper hardcore IR realist style, it is about (Blue)American Empire acquiring permanent class of supporters, collaborators and fifth columnists world wide.
What were German minorities for Third Reich, what were Communist sympathizers for Soviet Union, LGBTQ+ are for Global Rule Based Order. And unlike these, they are permanent presence. You can get rid of ethnic minority, you can get rid even of ideological/religious minority if you are willing to get dirty, but LGBTQ+ are born every day. Even most hard core regimes would balk at gulaging/executing 5% of population in every generation, for forever.
Yes, this sucks if you are LGBTQ+ (or suspected to be one) in unfriendly territory, but it rocks if you are GAE.
How do you distinguish that from the other traditional geopolitical role for minority groups? “No, really, we swear the Ukrainian government is full of Nazis; let us invade already!” It serves Russia’s interests to insist that the U.S. is grooming an LGBT fifth column whether or not that’s true.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think our governments actually run on Bismarckpilled IR theory. Technology crowded out most of the traditional diplomatic options, so we had to come up with ones that wouldn’t cause a land war in Asia. One of those was loudly complaining whenever anyone (other than us) engaged in political repression. Russian law on LGBT advocacy looks pretty bad on that front, so our newspapers make a point of complaining.
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Let's call it multivariate.
I think @ThisIsSin is correct downthread when he points out (perhaps I'm editorializing) that a lot of it has to do with cultivating legitimacy. Our national myths are the Civil Rights Movement (protecting the 'oppressed' from the 'privileged') and taking down Nazi Germany because they were killing minorities, whether that had anything to do with our motives at the time or not.
Ergo, to legitimize ongoing and novel interventionism, it helps to slot the matter into such a frame. People are familiar with the concept and trained from birth to see it as morally correct.
It's more a symptom of legitimacy than it is a cultivation thereof.
Accepting American framings on problems means you accept American religion (the foundations of which are "man bad", "white bad", and "straight bad"- 3 Goddesses from the Western perspective named "Safety", "Equality", and "Consent" respectively- and foreign cultures worship them to their detriment) means you accept the power of the priests of those American goddesses to dictate to you what your culture should be.
Pride parades are a symbol of power in the same way military parades are for other nations.
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