Mainstream Media Ignores Hillary’s Landmark U.N. Speech, Anti-Gay Groups Lose Their Shit Over It
Yesterday, President Obama gave international gay rights a serious boost when he issued a memorandum saying fair treatment of LGBT people worldwide is a priority of the administration.
Secretary Clinton did him one better, though, when she took to the microphone before the United Nations in Geneva and delivered a 30-minute speech (13-minute version above) highlighting her belief that human rights and gay rights are one and the same, and that we need to start providing aid to marginalized LGBT people across the world.
She acknowledged that America still has a way to go herself:
I speak about this subject knowing that my own country’s record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect. Until 2003, it was still a crime in parts of our country. Many LGBT Americans have endured violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some, including many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily experiences. So we, like all nations, have more work to do to protect human rights at home.
Seeing as this is the first time a United States politician has vocally promoted gay rights on an international level, in no uncertain terms, the mainstream was quick to pay attention, right?
Um, not quite.
ThinkProgress’ Igor Volsky noted that “while MSNBC devoted four separate segments to the administration’s announcement—with ample coverage from Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell— and Fox News even included the story in Bret Baier’s Special Report, CNN, ABC World News, and the CBS Evening News ignored it entirely.” He also notes that the NBC Nightly News “did cover the story at the top of the program.”
And, of course, right-wing wing nuts are completely freaking out over this. Click through for the reactions from anachronistic Christian groups, objectionable Republican presidential candidates, and “stony-faced” anti-gay diplomats.
NEXT: How did the Right respond?
Photo via kakissel
Hillary Clinton has a track record of major human rights violations. She knows why she was in Geneva. She knows that UN officials are about to slap her administration for allowing one of her own citizens — a gay American soldier at that — to be tortured and sexually humiliated in custody. The Obama administration continues to repeatedly violate our civil and human rights. So it’s great that good things may potentially happen to some gay people as long as helping them doesn’t cross Hillary’s primary commitment to her pro-corporate foreign policy agenda. But for us to say she’s this great person on human rights ignores the fact that she as a person has a terrible record. Think twice before you gulp down what at first glance appears to be an appetizing glass of kool-aid.
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I’m trying to figure out the political calculations that brought this about. From where I sit he loses more domestically than he gains. It’s a huge boost to the LGBT and Ally community but we were pretty much going to vote for him anyway. Who else’s support did he pick up with this action?
I have a hard time believing it was a selfless act.
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Too bad Hillary Clinton didn’t win the Democratic nomination.
She’s smart and she’s fearless. She knows where all the bodies are buried and has battled the sharks in the GOP for more than 25 years.
Unlike Barack Obama who worships Ronald Reagan and jumps into the safety of Michelle’s arms anytime John Boehner or Mitch McConnell says “boo”, Hillary knows how to stand her ground. She doesn’t back down.
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Way to go, Hilary! In the professional opinion of two psychologists I’ve consulted, Charles Rozier has dramatic and enduring paranoid features, which qualify him indefinitely for a stay at the looney bin. They’ve told me they have deep concerns about him interacting with young people in the classroom, but I go a little farther. In my view, he shouldn’t even be able to drive.
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I am a staunch opponent of Foreign Aid for any purpose, including military and humanitarian purposes in almost all, maybe 99%, of cases. However, if we are to continue the stupidity of spending money protecting non-Americans, we ought to condition it on requiring countries to abide by what Secretary Clinton rightly pointed out are American values, such as secular democracy, and LGBT rights. We may not practice it, but rightly, we preach it. Now if we could do so in our own country.
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@christopher di spirito: Are you people idiots, she works for the Obama administration…Do you think that she said one word in that speech that wasn’t first vetted by the administration? She was directed by her CIC to give that speech…Don’t forget that Hillary(whom I admire) less than a year ago stated in Australia that she did not support gay marriage(the same position as her CIC)…Yet you people love her and have disdain for Obama…
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@christopher di spirito: A lot of your comments seem angry and full of bile, chris. I think it’s long overdue you took a chill pill. You could take one every night before bed. How does that sound?
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Funny I am a republican and I support Marriage, any kind of marriage, be it Gay or Straight. But here as one stated I apparently am against it and want to regress away from LGBT right, when in fact I don’t. I think that if you want to protect the values of marriage make Divorce illegal, because that is what is ruining marriage. Marriage to me is the union of two individuals that love one another. Just my two cents, but please don’t stereotype all Republicans because of the ones that are on TV they dont speak for all of us.
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I absolutely love Mrs Clinton. Intelligent, eloquent and bigger balls than everyone else in American politics. Bravo Hillary, you’d have my vote!