Hillary Clinton will
fight for gay
rights worldwide
Meeting with young people at the European Parliament in Brussels on March 6, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised to fight for gay rights on the world stage.
At a question-and-answer session, Clinton called on Maxim Anmeghichean, programs director for the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, after commenting on his "I Love Hillary" T-shirt.
Anmeghichean said: "My name is Max. I am from Moldova, and I am a gay rights activist. In seven countries in the world homosexuals are sentenced to death and many more to prison. A lot of gay men around the world die because of the HIV/AIDS policies that the Bush administration had that did not allow to spend money on prevention for men who have sex with men. How do you see the foreign policy of the United States changing in the coming years in the field of human rights and in particular sexual rights and gay and lesbian rights?"
Clinton responded: "Human rights is and will always be one of the pillars of our foreign policy. And in particular, the persecution and discrimination against gays and lesbians is something that we take very seriously. It is terribly unfortunate, as you just recited, that, you know, right now in unfortunately many places in the world violence against gays and lesbians, certainly discrimination and prejudice, are not just occurring but condoned and protected. And we would hope that over the next few years we could have some influence in trying to change those attitudes."
Clinton continued: "Specifically, with respect to HIV/AIDS, we have made a very big treatment commitment, as some of you know, through our program called PEPFAR. And it is an important part of the American approach toward trying to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. But we haven't done enough on prevention, and we haven't done enough on outreach or testing. We're beginning to, and under our administration we will do much more. And I can only hope that we all live long enough—certainly I hope I live long enough; I think you all will—to see the end to this kind of discriminatory treatment, and recognition that human rights are the inalienable right of every person no matter who that person loves, and that's what we should be trying to achieve."
Colombian gay
leader murdered
Well-known Colombian gay activist Álvaro Miguel Rivera Linares, 41, was killed March 6 in his apartment in Cali.
He suffered a fatal blow to the head and was found tied to his bed and gagged. The apartment had been trashed but there were no signs of forced entry and nothing was stolen.
Rivera received national attention when he fought a 2001 mandate by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC ) guerrillas that all residents of a FARC-controlled sector of the eastern state of Meta take an HIV test or leave the area within a week.
Thereafter, he received death threats and was followed on the streets and harassed at work. He eventually left Meta, his home state, as a result.
Leading Latino-issues blogger Andrés Duque called Rivera's death "a tremendous loss to the international human rights movement."
—Assistance: Bill Kelley