Secretary Clinton's Pre-U.N. Address Meeting With LGBT Advocates

Prior to her Tuesday U.N. address on LGBT rights, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave the following remarks to a group of LGBT advocates including representatives from the Council for Global Equality as well as former U.S. Ambassador to Romania Michael Guest and Ambassador Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa (in March, South Africa introduced a Human Rights Council resolution that "[expresses] grave concern at acts of violence and discrimination, in all regions of the world, committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity").

Transcription via State.gov:

Secy Clinton: Well, I just wanted to stop by and very briefly express my appreciation to all of you for what you do every single day. I understand that you have traveled from 13 countries on four continents to be here, which I think speaks volumes about how important you believe these efforts are. And I want to thank Eileen and her team, who have been just stalwart in supporting our leadership and advocacy on behalf of the LGBT community. I want to thank Esther Brimmer, our Assistant Secretary for International Organizations back at the State Department. And is Ambassador Minty here? Is Ambassador Minty -- where's Ambassador Minty? Ambassador Minty, thank you, and I will publicly thank South Africa in my remarks, in my formal speech.

I want to thank -- taking sort of personal privilege and national pride -- some individual representatives here from both the American and the international NGO community -- Ambassador Mike Guest, Mark Bromley, and Julie Dorf from the Council for Global Equality, our great partners and help coordinate a lot of other NGO voices. Mike, as you know, is a retired ambassador from our Foreign Service, and yet is still working in the service of public -- the public interest. I want to thank John Fisher and all who worked with him here in Geneva to support the resolution in June.

And I want to thank each and every one of you here in Geneva for the great work that was done on the resolution, and also those of you who are out every single day making the case for dignity and human rights for all people. I know it is challenging and dangerous in many instances. But first and foremost, we want you to know that you are not alone, that you have a growing chorus of people who recognize this as a human rights issue for the 21st century.

So without further ado, I will see you in the chamber, where I hope that the United States will continue to make the case, not just for those who are already convinced, but most importantly for the many leaders and our fellow citizens around the world who are not, and who we have to recognize their issues and concerns in order to keep evolving the consensus on behalf of LGBT rights for all.

Thank you. (Applause.)