This week, the Obama administration took several steps to defend the rights of LGBT people across the globe.
On Tuesday, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum directing U.S. agencies engaged overseas to work to promote and protect rights of LGBTs worldwide. The same day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech about LGBT rights at the United Nation event in recognition of International Human Rights Day and announced a $3-million fund to support LGBT-rights organizations abroad.
Though some would argue the administration hasn’t done enough to ensure and promote equality, this certainly demonstrates a commitment above any prior administration.
For Obama’s memorandum, the president laid out five directives for U.S. federal agencies: combat criminalization of LGBT status or conduct abroad; protect vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers; use foreign assistance to protect human rights and advance nondiscrimination; provide swift and meaningful U.S. responses to human rights abuses of LGBT persons abroad; engage international organizations in the fight against LGBT discrimination.
In a moving 30-minute speech, Clinton focused wholly on LGBT rights, asserting that human rights are innate, countering criticisms of LGBT rights and calling on nations and individuals to better protect LGBTs.
Clinton began by talking about the original Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, and the progress that many nations have made on human rights in the intervening years.
Calling LGBTs an “invisible minority,” Clinton acknowledged that the issue of equal rights, though it has evolved, is sensitive for many and that obstacles based on “personal, political, cultural and religious beliefs” stand in the way.
In asserting the equality of LGBTs, Clinton noted the evolution of thinking on this issue matched that of rights for various groups, such as indigenous people, children or people with disabilities.
“We understood that we were honoring rights that people always had, rather than creating new or special rights for them,” she said. “Like being a woman, like being a racial, religious, tribal or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human.”
In countering criticisms of LGBT rights, she challenged the notions that being gay is a Western invention and that only wealthy nations can afford the “luxury” of protecting LGBT human rights, stating that being gay is a “human reality” and that failing to protect any group inflicts costs on the society, both in lives lost and in ideas never pursued.
Clinton tackled objections to protecting LGBTs on religious or cultural values by comparing them to justifications “for violent practices toward women such as honor killings, widow burning or female genital mutilation” and how slavery was justified as “sanctioned by God,” noting that “no practice or tradition trumps the human rights that belong to all of us.”
Clinton went on to discuss how to affect progress, calling for changes in laws, asking leaders ensure all citizens are treated equally and entreating the global community to respect LGBTs.
“The lives of gay people are shaped not only by laws, but by the treatment they receive every day from their families, from their neighbors,” she said.