Hillary Clinton Comes Out for Marriage Equality

Americans for Marriage Equality, a video campaign produced by the Human Rights Campaign featuring prominent Americans who support committed gay and lesbian couples getting married, has gained a powerful voice with the addition of former secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones, and they are full and equal citizens who deserve the rights of citizenship. That includes marriage,” explains Clinton in the latest video produced for the campaign. “That’s why I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law.”

Clinton’s sentiments in the video underscore the historic speech she made to the U.N. in 2011 when she outlined the United States’s stance on an “invisible minority” and proclaimed a simple, powerful idea: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

She is the last in her family to voice support for marriage equality, with daughter Chelsea Clinton and husband Bill Clinton joining the effort to pass marriage equality in New York in 2011. The former president has also since called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which he had signed into law while in office.

Watch Hillary Clinton’s full statement below.