i love her then, i lover her more now. the impact of her doing this speech is monumental for me. the speech is kinda long, but am glad that it is. because each lgbt issue was discussed thoroughly so that people can better understand. after listening (and crying) to her speech, parang gusto ko na mag-out sa family ko. please watch/read the speech.
WATCH: The Speech You’ve Been Waiting For
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s address before the United Nations in
Geneva will be remembered by history, with the Secretary of State
unabashedly arguing to the world that LGBT rights are human rights.
Read the Complete Transcript of the Speech, as Provided By the State Department:
SECRETARY CLINTON: Good evening, and let me express my deep honor
and pleasure at being here. I want to thank Director General Tokayev
and Ms. Wyden along with other ministers, ambassadors, excellencies,
and UN partners. This weekend, we will celebrate Human Rights Day, the
anniversary of one of the great accomplishments of the last century.
Beginning
in 1947, delegates from six continents devoted themselves to drafting a
declaration that would enshrine the fundamental rights and freedoms of
people everywhere. In the aftermath of World War II, many nations
pressed for a statement of this kind to help ensure that we would
prevent future atrocities and protect the inherent humanity and dignity
of all people. And so the delegates went to work. They discussed, they
wrote, they revisited, revised, rewrote, for thousands of hours. And
they incorporated suggestions and revisions from governments,
organizations, and individuals around the world.
At three o’clock
in the morning on December 10th, 1948, after nearly two years of
drafting and one last long night of debate, the president of the UN
General Assembly called for a vote on the final text. Forty-eight
nations voted in favor; eight abstained; none dissented. And the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. It proclaims a
simple, powerful idea: All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights. And with the declaration, it was made clear that
rights are not conferred by government; they are the birthright of all
people. It does not matter what country we live in, who our leaders are,
or even who we are. Because we are human, we therefore have rights.
And because we have rights, governments are bound to protect them.
In
the 63 years since the declaration was adopted, many nations have made
great progress in making human rights a human reality. Step by step,
barriers that once prevented people from enjoying the full measure of
liberty, the full experience of dignity, and the full benefits of
humanity have fallen away. In many places, racist laws have been
repealed, legal and social practices that relegated women to
second-class status have been abolished, the ability of religious
minorities to practice their faith freely has been secured.
(RELATED: What This All Could Mean to LGBT Rights)
In
most cases, this progress was not easily won. People fought and
organized and campaigned in public squares and private spaces to change
not only laws, but hearts and minds. And thanks to that work of
generations, for millions of individuals whose lives were once narrowed
by injustice, they are now able to live more freely and to participate
more fully in the political, economic, and social lives of their
communities.
Now, there is still, as you all know, much more to
be done to secure that commitment, that reality, and progress for all
people. Today, I want to talk about the work we have left to do to
protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied in too
many parts of the world today. In many ways, they are an invisible
minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed. Many are
treated with contempt and violence by their fellow citizens while
authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often,
even join in the abuse. They are denied opportunities to work and
learn, driven from their homes and countries, and forced to suppress or
deny who they are to protect themselves from harm.
I am talking
about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings
born free and given bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to
claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges
of our time. I speak about this subject knowing that my own country’s
record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect. Until 2003,
it was still a crime in parts of our country. Many LGBT Americans have
endured violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some,
including many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily
experiences. So we, like all nations, have more work to do to protect
human rights at home.
Now, raising this issue, I know, is
sensitive for many people and that the obstacles standing in the way of
protecting the human rights of LGBT people rest on deeply held
personal, political, cultural, and religious beliefs. So I come here
before you with respect, understanding, and humility. Even though
progress on this front is not easy, we cannot delay acting. So in that
spirit, I want to talk about the difficult and important issues we must
address together to reach a global consensus that recognizes the human
rights of LGBT citizens everywhere.
The first issue goes to the
heart of the matter. Some have suggested that gay rights and human
rights are separate and distinct; but, in fact, they are one and the
same. Now, of course, 60 years ago, the governments that drafted and
passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were not thinking
about how it applied to the LGBT community. They also weren’t thinking
about how it applied to indigenous people or children or people with
disabilities or other marginalized groups. Yet in the past 60 years, we
have come to recognize that members of these groups are entitled to
the full measure of dignity and rights, because, like all people, they
share a common humanity.
This recognition did not occur all at
once. It evolved over time. And as it did, we understood that we were
honoring rights that people always had, rather than creating new or
special rights for them. Like being a woman, like being a racial,
religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you
less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human
rights are gay rights.
(RELATED: Read The Advocate’s Cover Story Interview With Secretary Clinton from Earlier This Year)
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.
The second
issue is a question of whether homosexuality arises from a particular
part of the world. Some seem to believe it is a Western phenomenon, and
therefore people outside the West have grounds to reject it. Well, in
reality, gay people are born into and belong to every society in the
world. They are all ages, all races, all faiths; they are doctors and
teachers, farmers and bankers, soldiers and athletes; and whether we
know it, or whether we acknowledge it, they are our family, our
friends, and our neighbors.
Being gay is not a Western
invention; it is a human reality. And protecting the human rights of
all people, gay or straight, is not something that only Western
governments do. South Africa’s constitution, written in the aftermath
of Apartheid, protects the equality of all citizens, including gay
people. In Colombia and Argentina, the rights of gays are also legally
protected. In Nepal, the supreme court has ruled that equal rights
apply to LGBT citizens. The Government of Mongolia has committed to
pursue new legislation that will tackle anti-gay discrimination.
Now,
some worry that protecting the human rights of the LGBT community is a
luxury that only wealthy nations can afford. But in fact, in all
countries, there are costs to not protecting these rights, in both gay
and straight lives lost to disease and violence, and the silencing of
voices and views that would strengthen communities, in ideas never
pursued by entrepreneurs who happen to be gay. Costs are incurred
whenever any group is treated as lesser or the other, whether they are
women, racial, or religious minorities, or the LGBT. Former President
Mogae of Botswana pointed out recently that for as long as LGBT people
are kept in the shadows, there cannot be an effective public health
program to tackle HIV and AIDS. Well, that holds true for other
challenges as well.
(RELATED: Inside Secretary Clinton’s Pre-UN Address Meeting with LGBT Advocates)
The
third, and perhaps most challenging, issue arises when people cite
religious or cultural values as a reason to violate or not to protect
the human rights of LGBT citizens. This is not unlike the justification
offered for violent practices towards women like honor killings, widow
burning, or female genital mutilation. Some people still defend those
practices as part of a cultural tradition. But violence toward women
isn’t cultural; it’s criminal. Likewise with slavery, what was once
justified as sanctioned by God is now properly reviled as an
unconscionable violation of human rights.
In each of these
cases, we came to learn that no practice or tradition trumps the human
rights that belong to all of us. And this holds true for inflicting
violence on LGBT people, criminalizing their status or behavior,
expelling them from their families and communities, or tacitly or
explicitly accepting their killing.
Of course, it bears noting
that rarely are cultural and religious traditions and teachings
actually in conflict with the protection of human rights. Indeed, our
religion and our culture are sources of compassion and inspiration
toward our fellow human beings. It was not only those who’ve justified
slavery who leaned on religion, it was also those who sought to abolish
it. And let us keep in mind that our commitments to protect the freedom
of religion and to defend the dignity of LGBT people emanate from a
common source. For many of us, religious belief and practice is a vital
source of meaning and identity, and fundamental to who we are as
people. And likewise, for most of us, the bonds of love and family that
we forge are also vital sources of meaning and identity. And caring
for others is an expression of what it means to be fully human. It is
because the human experience is universal that human rights are
universal and cut across all religions and cultures.
The fourth
issue is what history teaches us about how we make progress towards
rights for all. Progress starts with honest discussion. Now, there are
some who say and believe that all gay people are pedophiles, that
homosexuality is a disease that can be caught or cured, or that gays
recruit others to become gay. Well, these notions are simply not true.
They are also unlikely to disappear if those who promote or accept them
are dismissed out of hand rather than invited to share their fears and
concerns. No one has ever abandoned a belief because he was forced to
do so.
(RELATED: Speech Gets Negative Reaction Among Some World Ambassadors)
Universal
human rights include freedom of expression and freedom of belief, even
if our words or beliefs denigrate the humanity of others. Yet, while
we are each free to believe whatever we choose, we cannot do whatever
we choose, not in a world where we protect the human rights of all.
Reaching
understanding of these issues takes more than speech. It does take a
conversation. In fact, it takes a constellation of conversations in
places big and small. And it takes a willingness to see stark
differences in belief as a reason to begin the conversation, not to
avoid it.
But progress comes from changes in laws. In many
places, including my own country, legal protections have preceded, not
followed, broader recognition of rights. Laws have a teaching effect.
Laws that discriminate validate other kinds of discrimination. Laws
that require equal protections reinforce the moral imperative of
equality. And practically speaking, it is often the case that laws must
change before fears about change dissipate.
Many in my country
thought that President Truman was making a grave error when he ordered
the racial desegregation of our military. They argued that it would
undermine unit cohesion. And it wasn’t until he went ahead and did it
that we saw how it strengthened our social fabric in ways even the
supporters of the policy could not foresee. Likewise, some worried in
my country that the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would have a
negative effect on our armed forces. Now, the Marine Corps Commandant,
who was one of the strongest voices against the repeal, says that his
concerns were unfounded and that the Marines have embraced the change.
(RELATED: Perry, Santorum Denounce Call for Global Gay Rights)
Finally,
progress comes from being willing to walk a mile in someone else’s
shoes. 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?” This
challenge applies to all of us as we reflect upon deeply held beliefs,
as we work to embrace tolerance and respect for the dignity of all
persons, and as we engage humbly with those with whom we disagree in
the hope of creating greater understanding.
A fifth and final
question is how we do our part to bring the world to embrace human
rights for all people including LGBT people. Yes, LGBT people must help
lead this effort, as so many of you are. Their knowledge and
experiences are invaluable and their courage inspirational. We know the
names of brave LGBT activists who have literally given their lives for
this cause, and there are many more whose names we will never know. But
often those who are denied rights are least empowered to bring about
the changes they seek. Acting alone, minorities can never achieve the
majorities necessary for political change.
So when any part of
humanity is sidelined, the rest of us cannot sit on the sidelines. Every
time a barrier to progress has fallen, it has taken a cooperative
effort from those on both sides of the barrier. In the fight for women’s
rights, the support of men remains crucial. The fight for racial
equality has relied on contributions from people of all races. Combating
Islamaphobia or anti-Semitism is a task for people of all faiths. And
the same is true with this struggle for equality.
Conversely,
when we see denials and abuses of human rights and fail to act, that
sends the message to those deniers and abusers that they won’t suffer
any consequences for their actions, and so they carry on. But when we do
act, we send a powerful moral message. Right here in Geneva, the
international community acted this year to strengthen a global consensus
around the human rights of LGBT people. At the Human Rights Council in
March, 85 countries from all regions supported a statement calling for
an end to criminalization and violence against people because of their
sexual orientation and gender identity.
At the following
session of the Council in June, South Africa took the lead on a
resolution about violence against LGBT people. The delegation from
South Africa spoke eloquently about their own experience and struggle
for human equality and its indivisibility. When the measure passed, it
became the first-ever UN resolution recognizing the human rights of gay
people worldwide. In the Organization of American States this year,
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights created a unit on the
rights of LGBT people, a step toward what we hope will be the creation
of a special rapporteur.
Now, we must go further and work here
and in every region of the world to galvanize more support for the
human rights of the LGBT community. To the leaders of those countries
where people are jailed, beaten, or executed for being gay, I ask you
to consider this: Leadership, by definition, means being out in front
of your people when it is called for. It means standing up for the
dignity of all your citizens and persuading your people to do the same.
It also means ensuring that all citizens are treated as equals under
your laws, because let me be clear – I am not saying that gay people
can’t or don’t commit crimes. They can and they do, just like straight
people. And when they do, they should be held accountable, but it
should never be a crime to be gay.
And to people of all nations,
I say supporting human rights is your responsibility too. 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. Eleanor
Roosevelt, who did so much to advance human rights worldwide, said that
these rights begin in the small places close to home – the streets
where people live, the schools they attend, the factories, farms, and
offices where they work. These places are your domain. The actions you
take, the ideals that you advocate, can determine whether human rights
flourish where you are.
And finally, to LGBT men and women
worldwide, let me say this: Wherever you live and whatever the
circumstances of your life, whether you are connected to a network of
support or feel isolated and vulnerable, please know that you are not
alone. People around the globe are working hard to support you and to
bring an end to the injustices and dangers you face. That is certainly
true for my country. And you have an ally in the United States of
America and you have millions of friends among the American people.
The
Obama Administration defends the human rights of LGBT people as part
of our comprehensive human rights policy and as a priority of our
foreign policy. In our embassies, our diplomats are raising concerns
about specific cases and laws, and working with a range of partners to
strengthen human rights protections for all. In Washington, we have
created a task force at the State Department to support and coordinate
this work. And in the coming months, we will provide every embassy with
a toolkit to help improve their efforts. And we have created a program
that offers emergency support to defenders of human rights for LGBT
people.
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.
This
evolution is evident in many places. To highlight one example, the Delhi
High Court decriminalized homosexuality in India two years ago,
writing, and I quote, “If there is one tenet that can be said to be an
underlying theme of the Indian constitution, it is inclusiveness.” There
is little doubt in my mind that support for LGBT human rights will
continue to climb. Because for many young people, this is simple: All
people deserve to be treated with dignity and have their human rights
respected, no matter who they are or whom they love.
There is a
phrase that people in the United States invoke when urging others to
support human rights: “Be on the right side of history.” The story of
the United States is the story of a nation that has repeatedly grappled
with intolerance and inequality. We fought a brutal civil war over
slavery. People from coast to coast joined in campaigns to recognize the
rights of women, indigenous peoples, racial minorities, children,
people with disabilities, immigrants, workers, and on and on. And the
march toward equality and justice has continued. Those who advocate for
expanding the circle of human rights were and are on the right side of
history, and history honors them. Those who tried to constrict human
rights were wrong, and history reflects that as well.
I know that
the thoughts I’ve shared today involve questions on which opinions are
still evolving. As it has happened so many times before, opinion will
converge once again with the truth, the immutable truth, that all
persons are created free and equal in dignity and rights. We are called
once more to make real the words of the Universal Declaration. Let us
answer that call. Let us be on the right side of history, for our
people, our nations, and future generations, whose lives will be shaped
by the work we do today. I come before you with great hope and
confidence that no matter how long the road ahead, we will travel it
successfully together. Thank you very much.
(The Short Version: 8 Must-Read Moments of Hillary Clinton’s Speech)
.
.
.
