This is not the place to stomp on religions but while buddhism may be considered more "liberal" in a western sense, the culture surrounding it is really conservative.

For example in many countries in far-east young males are pressed into spending a year in a monastery, while it may not be the law (as opposed to militiary draft of men), it's still pretty much a social norm not to break.

What i'm trying to convey is that buddhism is just seen a "more free" choice in western world because it's an alternative for the western societies' norms and religions where people grow into.

Edit: Also, human rigths became a popular issue in the west because of French revolution in the 1700's, which spread the idea of human rigths to western world.