While US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met privately with members of the Syrian National Council at a hotel in Geneva (December 6), journalists were diverted to the nearby UN headquarters to await what was billed as a major human rights speech by the American official.  Would it be about Syria? Burma?  US officials weren’t saying.

If the journalists could have been in two places at once they might have gotten a hint in Clinton’s comments to the Syrian opposition leaders. Speaking to the National Council, she said "a democratic transition is not just the overthrow of the Assad regime. It means setting Syria on the path of the rule of law and protecting the universal rights of all citizens regardless of sect or ethnicity or gender."

To the surprise of many in her captive audience of diplomats, human rights advocates and students who had undergone an hour-long security check over at the UN, gender was the mysterious human rights issue she wished to address – but gender as in LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender). 

“Raising this issue, I know, is sensitive for many people,” Clinton said.  “Like being a woman, like being a racial, religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights."

So sensitive was the concern of State Department officials about the reaction of some countries that are members of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council that the subject of her speech was treated as a state secret until she delivered it.

Clinton called on UN member countries to be on the right side of history and recognize that human rights are not culturally specific but universal as specified in the 60-year old Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Some seem to believe it (LGBT) is a Western phenomenon, and therefore people outside the West have grounds to reject it. Well, in reality, gay people are born into and belong to every society in the world. They are all ages, all races, all faiths; they are doctors and teachers, farmers and bankers, soldiers and athletes; and whether we know it, or whether we acknowledge it, they are our family, our friends, and our neighbors.”

(Photo © Eric Bridiers / State Department)