Secretary Clinton on Uganda

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke at Georgetown University earlier this week on the subject of Human Rights and addressed the issue of Uganda, where legislation is pending that would make being gay or lesbian punishable by death. You can check out the full video of the speech on LGBT POV.

I've always admired Hillary Clinton a great deal (I supported her in the primaries over President Obama) and I think she's been far stronger on LGBT issues within the confines of her role than the President has been with far greater power at his disposal.

Speaking out on Uganda is crucial, especially at a time when even the BBC seems to think they can pose the question 'Should Homosexuals Face Execution?' as if there were a legitimate discussion to be had on the matter! Genocide doesn't come with a pro and con list. Uganda isn't the only place where LGBT people are facing grave Human Rights violations, though, and Secretary Clinton demonstrated her awareness of that fact.

After the speech, the Secretary of State was asked a follow up question by one of the students attending the event:

QUESTION: Hello, Secretary Clinton. Thank you so much for speaking to us today. You spoke about the situation in Uganda. Could you please talk to us a little bit more about how the United States can protect the rights of LGBT people in areas where those rights are not respected?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yes. And first let me say that over this past year, we have elevated into our human rights dialogues and our public statements a very clear message about protecting the rights of the LGBT community worldwide. And we are particularly concerned about some of the specific cases that have come to our attention around the world. There have been organized efforts to kill and maim gays and lesbians in some countries that we have spoken out about, and also conveyed our very strong concerns about to their governments – not that they were governmentally implemented or even that the government was aware of them, but that the governments need to pay much greater attention to the kinds of abuses that we’ve seen in Iraq, for example.

We are deeply concerned about some of the stories coming out of Iran. In large measure, in reaction, we think, to the response to the elections back in June, there have been abuses committed within the detention facilities and elsewhere that we are deeply concerned about. And then the example that I used of a piece of legislation in Uganda which would not only criminalize homosexuality but attach the death penalty to it. We have expressed our concerns directly, indirectly, and we will continue to do so. The bill has not gone through the Ugandan legislature, but it has a lot of public support by various groups, including religious leaders in Uganda. And we view it as a very serious potential violation of human rights.

So it is clear that across the world this is a new frontier in the minds of many people about how we protect the LGBT community, but it is at the top of our list because we see many instances where there is a very serious assault on the physical safety and an increasing effort to marginalize people. And we think it’s important for the United States to stand against that and to enlist others to join us in doing so.