Late Night: Hillary on the Cover of The Advocate!

Holy moly! I was going to try to get my insomniac self to bed, but this simply can’t wait. While catching up on my twitter feeds from Monday, I saw this from stacyx/secyclintonblog:

SecyClintonblog: Secretary Clinton on the Cover Issue of the Gay Rights Publication The Advocate : http://t.co/pyKkJBS #glbt #gay #hillaryclinton #secclinton

Well, y’all this is yet another one to file under “why I’m a ‘Hillary fan’ and 100% unapologetic about it”:

You may have trouble reading the caption and not have instant access to a newsstand at the moment, so I’ll type it out for you:

YES, SHE DID: Hillary Clinton emerges as the administration’s fiercest advocate–and explains why gay rights will never take a backseat at the State Department.

It’s a lengthy, meaty must-read interview. I’m still working my way through it myself, so go read at the link or get your hands on a copy (I know I can’t wait to go buy my own later today). I’ll include an excerpt here of the first page to get you started, emphasis in bold is mine:

From The Advocate January 2011

Madame Secretary

“Gay rights are human rights.” With that declaration — and the team she has assembled at the State Department—Hillary Rodham Clinton has elevated the dialogue on LGBT rights around the globe.

By Kerry Eleveld

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reveled before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 500 State Department employees celebrating gay pride at the agency’s Loy Henderson Auditorium in Washington, D.C. last summer. “Gee, let’s do this every week!” she said. This, it seemed, was to be more of a reunion of old acquaintances than a perfunctory speech on diversity.

At first, Clinton glanced down—to the lectern and her prepared remarks. But her focus on the written page melted away as she looked up and rolled on with the speech, channeling the myriad mental notes she had made over the years.

Displaying an uncanny depth of understanding for the challenges that many LGBT youth experience, Clinton spoke of tragedies that would only come to national attention months later after a spate of heart-wrenching teen suicides dominated headlines for weeks. She called on the staff members before her to help create a safe space for gays and lesbians everywhere, “Particularly young people, particularly teenagers who still, today, have such a difficult time and who, still, in numbers far beyond what should ever happen, take their own lives rather than live that life.”

Men and women around the world were being “harassed, beaten, subjected to sexual violence, even killed, because of who they are and whom they love,” she said.

“This is a human rights issue,” Clinton told the rapt audience. She ad-libbed, recalling an oft-quoted line from a landmark speech on women’s rights at a U.N. conference in China: “Just as I was very proud to say the obvious more than 15 years ago in Beijing—that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights—well, let me say today that human rights are gay rights, and gay rights are human rights, once and for all.”

Asked months later what was going through her mind when she offered the unscripted line at the pride celebration, Clinton responds with her inimitable laugh. “Oh, heavens, I don’t know—I don’t know,” she says before settling back into the moment. “I was looking out at the audience where a lot of longtime friends, political supporters, colleagues were sitting, and it just seemed so important and right to make that statement.”

I’d like to point out that Hillary said all this back in June, before the disturbing string of suicides related to anti-gay bullying began to appear in the headlines. And, remember how when that happened, Hillary took the lead then too, including “going purple” in a sea full of gray suits.

In case you missed it at the time or want to see it again, here’s the video of the speech that the Advocate is referencing above (the link goes to the State Department transcript; Hillary declares that “human rights are gay rights, and gay rights are human rights” at around the 6:20 mark below):

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Not all of us “Hillary fans” can be painted with the same broad brush and lumped together with the obligatory Hillary groupies out there. Hillary won my support, exactly because she’s the kind of woman to make the speech above and do this cover story interview with the Advocate.

Oh, Yes, She DID, indeed. Brava, Madame Secretary, on emerging as the “fiercest advocate” in this Administration. I never had a doubt.