Hillary Clinton pushes for gay rights but won’t support equal marriage
Hillary Clinton says she’s tried to put LGBT rights “near the top” of the Obama administration’s foreign agenda.
In an interview with US gay magazine The Advocate, Ms Clinton said there was a “rising global tide of violence” against LGBT people around the world and said America was “taking the lead” in making changes.
But unlike her husband, she said her views on gay marriage equality had not changed.
Bill Clinton said in 2009: “I had all these gay friends, I had all these gay couple friends, and I was hung up about it. And I decided I was wrong.”
When pressed by the Advocate to state her views on the matter, Ms Clinton said: “Well, I share his experience because we obviously share a lot of the same friends, but I have not changed my position.”
She would not elaborate further.
However, she said the administration was pushing for progress in countries which criminalise or frown on homosexuality.
“We’ve tried to put LGBT issues near the top of the administration’s foreign policy agenda and made that clear to our ambassadors and other personnel around the world, ” she said.
“Particularly in places where violence is permitted by the law, where it is inflamed by public calls, and in places where it just persists as a stumbling block to people realising their own aspirations.
“There is this rising global tide of violence against the LGBT community around the world,” she warned,” 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.”
The full interview can be read here.
