White House tells world: Stop gay discrimination

[mgc1961]

GENEVA — The Obama administration bluntly warned the world against gay and lesbian discrimination Tuesday, declaring the U.S. will use foreign assistance as well as diplomacy to back its insistence that gay rights are fully equal to other basic human rights.

In unusually strong language, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton compared the struggle for gay equality to difficult passages toward women’s rights and racial equality, and she said a country’s cultural or religious traditions are no excuse for discrimination.

“Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” she said. “It should never be a crime to be gay.”

Clinton’s audience included diplomats from Arab, African and other nations where homosexuality is criminalized or where brutality and discrimination against gay people is tolerated or encouraged.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111207/NEWS08/312070111/White-House-tells-world-Stop-gay-discrimination

[CBHagman]

1. A link to the secretary of state's remarks.

Remarks in Recognition of International Human Rights Day

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/12/178368.htm

And a small portion of the speech:

This morning, back in Washington, President Obama put into place the first U.S. Government strategy dedicated to combating human rights abuses against LGBT persons abroad. Building on efforts already underway at the State Department and across the government, the President has directed all U.S. Government agencies engaged overseas to combat the criminalization of LGBT status and conduct, to enhance efforts to protect vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers, to ensure that our foreign assistance promotes the protection of LGBT rights, to enlist international organizations in the fight against discrimination, and to respond swiftly to abuses against LGBT persons.

I am also pleased to announce that we are launching a new Global Equality Fund that will support the work of civil society organizations working on these issues around the world. This fund will help them record facts so they can target their advocacy, learn how to use the law as a tool, manage their budgets, train their staffs, and forge partnerships with women’s organizations and other human rights groups. We have committed more than $3 million to start this fund, and we have hope that others will join us in supporting it.

The women and men who advocate for human rights for the LGBT community in hostile places, some of whom are here today with us, are brave and dedicated, and deserve all the help we can give them. We know the road ahead will not be easy. A great deal of work lies before us. But many of us have seen firsthand how quickly change can come. In our lifetimes, attitudes toward gay people in many places have been transformed. Many people, including myself, have experienced a deepening of our own convictions on this topic over the years, as we have devoted more thought to it, engaged in dialogues and debates, and established personal and professional relationships with people who are gay.

[William769]

2. Recommended.

[mgc1961]

3. Sorry for duplicating an xchrom post.

I guess I need to set my alarm for an earlier wake-up or go to bed at 9 pm. Don't tell my party-till-the-sun-comes-up neighbors though. If they knew I was in bed that early it would absolutely ruin their image of the running geezer next door.

:)

[enlightenment]

4. Good points - but if the US means it, they should act on it.

The day they cut diplomatic ties or refuse economic aid to a 'friendly' nation because of that nation's position on GLBT rights, I'll eat my words - but until then, talk is only talk regardless of how blunt the 'warning'.

[joeybee12]

5. Oh that's right...it's an election cycle!

Color not impressed.