Yet Another Reason to Love Hillary Clinton

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke today at an LGBT pride event at the State Department (the full transcript can be found here ). I was lucky enough to be able to attend because of a friend I have interning in the department, and the speech really was something to behold. Among the topics discussed was the recent change to the State Department’s equal employment opportunity statement to include gender identity, a big step in the right direction that will hopefully have a rippling effect through other government agencies and then in the private sector.

Here’s the full video.

And here are some of the highlights (in my opinion):

"Today, I’m pleased to announce that for the first time, gender identity will be included along with sexual orientation in the State Department Equal Employee Opportunity Statement."

"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"

"The struggle for equality is never, ever finished. And it is rarely easy, despite how self-evident it should be. But the hardest-fought battles often have the biggest impact."

It was really a great event, and it is especially optimistic that the State Department is including both sexual orientation and gender identity in its non-discrimination language. It’s also great to see the federal government not only reaching out to its LGBT employees but also taking a hard stance on LBGT issues.

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

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