US Secretary of State, Hiliary Clinton is urging the world to stop discrimination against gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people, and announced that the US would use diplomatic channels and foreign aid to expand the rights of GLBT people..
“Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” said in a speech marking Human Rights Day at the United Nations’ human rights body in Geneva.
Clinton said religious objections and cultural values to homosexuality should not stand in the way of vigorous United Nations action to promote the homosexual rights agenda.
The global acceptance of “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people” is “one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time,” likening the effort to ending racial, sexual, or religious discrimination, said Clinton.
She noted that perhaps the “most challenging issue arises when people cite religious or cultural values as a reason to violate or not to protect the human rights of GLBT citizens.”
These objections, she said, are “not unlike the justification offered for violent practices towards women like honor killings, widow burning, or female genital mutilation.”
She stated worldwide “opinions are still evolving” on homosexuality as they did with slavery, and “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 [religious] practice or tradition trumps the human rights that belong to all of us,” she said.
According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, homosexual acts are punishable by death in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen, as well as in parts of Nigeria under shari’a law.
Countries whose laws allow for imprisonment of 10 years or more for homosexuality include Libya, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and Guyana, it says.
In announcing the launch of a US$3m Global Equality Fund to assist civil organizations that promote equal rights for gays abroad, Clinton held out a challenge to other governments to join US efforts against gender discrimination.
Sources
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News category: World.
