New York City, N.Y., Jun 21, 2011 / 17:20 pm
State Department officials say the U.N.'s first-ever resolution on “sexual orientation and gender identity” represents an international victory for the Obama administration's policy agenda.
“This is really a paradigmatic example of using the U.N. system to advance one of President Obama's top policy priorities,” said Suzanne Nossel, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, after the resolution's passage on June 17. “We’ve been able to deliver on broad international support behind an agenda that we have set as a key goal for this Administration.”
During Friday's media briefing, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Dan Baer also emphasized the role of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Geneva-based Human Rights Council's decision.
“Both the President and Secretary Clinton have made LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) human rights a priority,” Baer said. He recalled that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton “gave a speech last year in which she said gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”