Hillary Clinton Does 'The Advocate Magazine'

US Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is featured on the cover and in the pages of the new issue of The Advocate magazine. Since Secretary Clinton made her bold comment "Human rights are gay rights, and gay rights are human rights, once and for all", she has brought the dialogue of GLBT rights to the forefront of political discussion around the world ... much to the pleasure of The Advocate.

In spite of a wave of controversy washing over the U.S. State Department with the release of classified documents, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton granted The Advocate's Washington correspondent, Kerry Eleveld, an interview just two days before the February issue went to press. Arguably the Obama administration's most progressive and productive agency on LGBT equality, the State Department, under Clinton's leadership, overhauled discriminatory personnel policies while championing gay rights internationally. Soon after declaring that "human rights are gay rights, and gay rights are human rights, once and for all" at the State Department's pride celebration, Clinton began clarifying the department's LGBT human rights policy to U.S. embassies around the globe. "There is this rising global tide of violence against the LGBT community around the world," Clinton says, "and we are taking the lead in confronting the dangers of the lives and the livelihood of LGBT people as they go about their daily lives." Still, Secretary Clinton remains unchanged on the issue of full marriage equality. Clinton, recently caught off guard during a recent inquiry on the topic during a visit to Australia, supports civil unions but not full marriage equality. Despite her husband's recent announcement that he supports full marriage equality, having many committed gay couples among his friends, Clinton says, "Well, I share his experience because we obviously share a lot of the same friends, but I have not changed my position." Nevertheless, Clinton aims to stomp out inequities in her own federal agency and worldwide. "I just really have a strong negative reaction to prejudice, discrimination, hatred, violence"anything that tried to delegitimize or marginalize any of our fellow citizens," she notes. "So it fits into my long-term and personally felt commitment to expanding the circle of human rights for everyone."

Yes, the fact that Secretary Clinton does not support same-sex marriage does bother me greatly but I do commend her fierce support of GLBT rights in the larger, global sense. I get that not everyone can agree on everything but I also understand that working together on the issues that we do agree on will be of great benefit to all. President Bill Clinton supports same-sex marriage and that is perfectly fine with me. But same-sex marriage is not the only thing that the GLBT community is fighting for. I sincerely hope that Sec. Clinton will keep the discourse on HUMAN RIGHTS, including the rights of GLBT humans, on the forefront of her agenda. Click ...

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