Thousands carry rainbow flags at the San Francisco Gay Pride Festival in California June 29, 2014
Credit : Reuters

By most accounts, the modern gay rights movement was initiated in the United States with a riot at New York City’s Stonewall Inn in 1969. But this history notwithstanding, the United States can no longer plausibly claim to be a pioneer in gay rights. Although the country has recently made progress in expanding access to gay marriage — the Supreme Court’s refusal to review a series of lower appellate court rulings that declared state bans on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional increased the portion of the American public living in a jurisdiction that allows same-sex marriage from 45 percent to almost 60 percent — it pales in comparison with the strides made elsewhere in the world. Fifteen countries spread across Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Asia, including some countries that are not traditionally thought […]