In every country where she sets her pretty little foot, Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, makes crystal clear that her signature issue centers on three overlapping populations, not countries, not regions, global populations: Women, children, and specifically girls. Those pundits who claim that she has adopted no signature issue are simply not paying attention to her words as she delivers address after address around the world.
Hillary Clinton is nothing if not single-mindedly dedicated to supporting and uplifting the marginalized and the helpless the world over, and she reminds us often that doing so is often simple, cost-effective, impactful, and the right thing to do. (Of course she is more than that, much more, that was simply a turn of phrase up there.) Tomorrow, at a State Department event celebrating Gay Pride Month, indications are that she is about to add another marginalized population to the list of those she intends to campaign on behalf of on her journeys.
Here is the State Department announcement of the event, which I mentioned over the weekend here and promised to remind readers about.
Secretary Clinton and USAID Administrator Shah to Deliver Remarks at Event Celebrating LGBT Month on June 22
Office of the SpokesmanWashington, DCJune 18, 2010
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah will deliver opening remarks on “LGBT Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy” at an event co-hosted by State’s Office of Civil Rights and GLIFFA, the organization for Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies, on Tuesday, June 22 at 11:00 a.m., at the Department of State.
The event is part of LGBT Pride Month celebrations at the U.S. Department of State and USAID.
Following the opening remarks, Assistant Secretary for Populations, Refugees, and Migration Eric Schwartz will lead a panel discussion with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Daniel Baer, Mark Bromley of the Council for Global Equality, and Cary Johnson of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
The event will be open to credentialed members of the media and can be watched live on www.state.gov.
Now those who have been following her tenure as Secretary of State, know very well that almost upon entry to the building last year, she met with GLIFFA members who asked for benefits for their domestic partners. They will also remember that last year, at the outset of Gay Pride Month, she announced that the research on that request was complete, the request was deemed reasonable and doable and was granted. This year, she streamlined the process for transgendered people to change their passports to reflect their new designation. But more is coming. We will probably hear it from her tomorrow. This will be a very important speech because it will alter U.S. foreign policy in a way that will leave her mark forever.
It will not be a treaty or anything that will require Congressional ratification. It will be a simple expansion of Hillary Clinton’s agenda to include human rights for LGBT people all over the world – not just at the State Department, embassies, and consulates, not just Americans, all LGBT people across the globe. That is huge.
In Beijing in 1996, she famously said that women’s rights were human rights and vice versa. I expect a similar declaration tomorrow which will imply a new demand that we will make on countries that do not grant full human rights to gays. It will add a new population to the list for whom she speaks out. It will alter her signature issue, now to become: Women, children, girls, and gays.
I realize I am sticking my neck out with this prediction, and I have been known to be wrong (not often), but I feel safe in making it because she’s Hillary Clinton, and this is the kind of thing she does.
Those who say she has no signature issue, I think, do so because they see the empowerment of the groups that you mentioned as non-issues.
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That would be because they are not listening to her about WHY these are issues and why doing what is right benefits everyone. They would be just like the people who think the oil spill only affects the Gulf. Short-sighted and mentally blunt.
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We in the US have a long history of not listening to her. Take Cleavage-gate, she up there in front of the Senate talking about something important (education, I think) and the resulting news coverage is about her breasts, the fact that they exist, and what that means for the nation. She says “… better education…”, Chris Matthews and the majority of the US media says “Boobies!” I’m so thankful for the BBC.
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Yes, it was about funding higher ed, and how when we were in school we got Defense loans. She had one, and so did I. She wanted to initiate a similar kind of program, and it was important. But, see she may HAVE breasts, but she doesn’t THINK with them, unlike some men and a certain body part they DO think with when they see … well … what they saw. It was ridiculous! Worst part, it was started by a WOMAN. That WaPo Robin Givhan. (I think that’s her name.)
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That woman should’ve left her be. It was summer in DC, it was hot, then-Senator Clinton didn’t feel like being too heavily layered. Hillary Clinton’s weight tends to fluctuate quite a bit, so her summer blouse was a bit big. Honestly, any woman who hasn’t pulled something out of their seasonal wardrobe and sworn the Closet Gremlins have replaced it with the same piece only a size larger or smaller isn’t being honest with themselves. The Closet Gremlins strike us all at one point or another.
As for men and their capacity for thinking – they’ve been given to organs capable of it and only enough blood to run one at a time.
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Am living there right now with the summer wardrobe! As for men. They’re men. Robin, she should have laid off!
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Oh no! The Closet Gremlins got you too! Everything I have is huge. It’s like I’ve shrunk!
I believe Ms. Givhan is a style reporter for WaPo, but Cleavage-gate was nearly to the level of investigative reporting. I had to find the picture where someone had circled it in red to even notice it. It didn’t even amount to a wardrobe malfunction for most of us, though everything Hillary Clinton wears is tailored to perfection so her standards are different.
It was a non-issue. Why was this woman scrutinizing the then Senator Clinton so much is beyond me. Was Paris Hilton under house arrest or something? Ms. Givhan was looking for a style faux pas from a woman who really doesn’t bother with style at all. Fashion column entrapment?
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Found this. Thought it was quite appropriate. Love his expression.
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Yes, a fashion columnist. And it was such a teensy bit of cleavage. But I wouldn’t say she doesn’t bother with style. I like her style.
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She dresses for practicality and, to whatever extent she’s bothered by it, body-consciousness. I don’t think she cares much beyond that. It doesn’t make a difference how she dresses, someone will always be displeased. Condi Rice was always referred to as being more about style rather than substance, Hillary is the opposite and I think we’re benefitting from that.
Now, if they wanted a great blend of style and substance they would have to get someone considerably younger than Secretary Clinton. Someone with a fierce wit and more artistic aesthetic sense. *Waves resume in the direction of DC.* (Kidding, of course. 😉 )
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*shameless self-promotion* tsk-tsk!
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Off topic, but is the Hillary-as-fairy-tale-character photo theme intentional? First it was Snow White and now it’s Cinderella. Where’s the Handsome Prince? She needs one.
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She HAS one, I hope!
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But he’s never in her fairy-tale photos. 😦
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No, he wisely remains in the background. We all know he’s there. It wasn’t intentional, by the way. Stuff like this happens with princesses – by accident. It’s magic!
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So you’re the Photo Fairy Godmother?
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Yes! I make sure she has her carriage, horses, glass slipper and her Prince.
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I guess those New Years Eve photos are as close as she’s ever gotten to having a public fairy-tale moment with her Arkansas prince.
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They´re so cute together in those pictures!! Yeah, it´s very likely the only moment of their public fairy-tale…but maybe the moment from the opening of Presidential Library in Little Rock and their kiss was pretty close to that too. 😉
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Yes, those are classics! Adorable!
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