Hillary Clinton made a bold statement yesterday. "Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct; but, in fact, they are one and the same . . . . being LGBT does not make you less human . . . ." she said. She went on:
"It is violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed because of their sexual orientation, or because they do not conform to cultural norms about how men and women should look or behave. It is a violation of human rights when governments declare it illegal to be gay, or allow those who harm gay people to go unpunished. It is a violation of human rights when lesbian or transgendered women are subjected to so-called corrective rape, or forcibly subjected to hormone treatments, or when people are murdered after public calls for violence toward gays, or when they are forced to flee their nations and seek asylum in other lands to save their lives. And it is a violation of human rights when life-saving care is withheld from people because they are gay, or equal access to justice is denied to people because they are gay, or public spaces are out of bounds to people because they are gay. No matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we are, we are all equally entitled to our human rights and dignity . . . .
We need to ask ourselves, 'How would it feel if it were a crime to love the person I love? How would it feel to be discriminated against for something about myself that I cannot change?'"
She did not outline consequences for countries that continue to perpetuate violent behavior, justified by legislation, toward LGBT individuals, although in October, UK Prime Minister David Cameron suggested ending foreign aid to countries that do not recognize LGBT rights. Several African countries objected, and Nigeria recently tightened legal discrimination against LGBT people.
Rick Perry, a now long-shot for the Republican nomination, upon hearing Clinton's speech, shared the thought that "Promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America’s interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money." You can read more about his stance here.
While I don't that the U.S. has the right to control foreign governments (much as we did in a great portion of Latin America and other nations during the Cold War to "prevent Communism"), I believe that it is our right as a nation to give aid to those countries who uphold human dignity. I also believe that it should not be illegal to love someone. And I'm sure that this speech will not change anything overnight, but it is more hope.
And we could all use a little of that.
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