What Hillary Clinton said about LGBT rights that you need to hear

In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s NPR interview last week, much attention was paid to her evolution on same-sex marriage. If you didn’t hear the interview, you might think that was all she and Terry Gross talked about. It was not. Indeed, Clinton gave us firsthand reminders of the challenges facing the international LGBT community – challenges that affect anyone who believes in the fundamental right to freedom.

As Secretary of State, Clinton was not at liberty to address domestic political issues (such as same-sex marriage). On the international stage, however, and in keeping with the title of her memoir, Hard Choices, Clinton boldly asserted in Geneva in 2011: “gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.” It was a groundbreaking moment. She also told the international community: “being LGBT does not make you less human.”

Around the world, there are thousands of people who believe in equal rights for the LGBT community. But there are others who declare that homosexuality is an affront to civilization, that children must be protected from its perceived corruptive force, and that homosexuality should be a punishable, criminal offense.

In Russia, President Vladmir Putin passed the anti-gay propaganda law a year ago this month, making it a crime to publicly support gay rights or acknowledge same-sex relationships to a minor.

In Uganda, President Yoweri Musevini passed the far worse Anti-homosexuality Act in February of this year, making homosexuality such an egregious crime (demanding life imprisonment in some cases) that anyone found “aiding or abetting” a homosexual (as in renting them an apartment), knowingly performing a same-sex marriage or not reporting a gay person to the authorities is committing a crime as well.

Snip

Clinton made the hard choice to defend the human rights of the international LGBT community and, in her interview with Terry Gross, she reminds us that none of us lives on an island. We are a global community. It is not enough to fight for equality at home. We must win equality at home and continue to be a vocal leader in the fight for the human rights of LGBT persons everywhere. Nothing short of real lives is at stake.

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/06/what-hillary-clinton-said-about-lgbt-rights-that-you-need-to-hear/