A bevy of Hillary Clinton's private emails were released to the public today by the U.S. State Department, and among different exchanges she had with colleagues, many of them highlight what her supporters have been steadily claiming -- that she's been a proponent of LGBT human rights all along.
Back in 2009 (four years before the current presidential hopeful formally endorsed marriage equality), then-Secretary of State Clinton expressed concern over purported torture of gay men in Iraq in one of many released conversations from 2009 with her adviser Cheryl Mills, reports the Washington Blade.
"So sad and terrible," wrote Clinton of the alleged antigay brutality in Iraq. "We should ask Chris Hill to raise this w govt. If we ever get Posner confirmed we should emphasize LGBT human rights."
The Blade added the following background to Clinton's email:
"The Chris Hill to which Clinton is referring is likely the U.S. ambassador to Iraq during the first two years of the Obama administration. Posner is likely Michael Posner, who came to serve in the State Department after his confirmation as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor."
Despite emails like this and a recent campaign video where Clinton champions marriage equality, Clinton has been lambasted recently for her slow "evolution" on supporting legal same-sex marriage during her tenure as Secretary of State. In fact, Clinton didn't publicly endorse same-sex marriage until she was out of office in 2013.
The latest emails from her time at the State Department were made public following a court order stemming from a controversy about whether Clinton broke rules against government employees using personal email to communicate for work purposes.
According to CNN, many of Obama's top aides knew of and communicated with Clinton's personal email, including David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel.
