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The Obama administration will focus more on humanitarian efforts concerning gays and lesbians around the world, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said when addressing old U.S. foreign policies at a European Parliament session.
The Obama administration will focus more on humanitarian efforts concerning gays and lesbians around the world, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said when addressing old U.S. foreign policies at a European Parliament session.
Clinton answered a question from a gay rights activist identifying himself as Max from Moldova, about uninclusive foreign policies.
"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," he said, wearing an I Love Hillary t-shirt. "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 said that the administration's foreign policy will focus more on gays than the previous president.
"It is terribly unfortunate, as you just recited, that 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," Clinton said according to video of the exchange posted on Friday. "We would hope that over the next few years we could have some influence in trying to change those attitudes, specifically with respect to HIV/AIDS."
Clinton cited the U.S.'s biggest international push against AIDS, the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which funds organizations and individuals in fighting HIV in international areas with high risk such as Asia and Africa. President Barack Obama, shortly after his inauguration, lifted the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule, which barred U.S. funding to go to organizations that performed abortions, and contraception.
"I can only hope that we all live long enough...that we will see the end to this kind of discriminatory treatment, and a recognition that human rights are an unalienable right, no matter who a person loves, and that is what we should be trying to achieve," she said.
