{"id":99321,"date":"2017-04-21T04:19:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T08:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=99321"},"modified":"2017-04-21T04:19:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T08:19:01","slug":"hillary-clinton-progress-in-lgbt-rights-may-not-be-secure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/21\/hillary-clinton-progress-in-lgbt-rights-may-not-be-secure\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillary Clinton: Progress in LGBT rights may not be secure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hillary<\/a>
Hillary Clinton told an audience of LGBT advocates Thursday night that the progress they’ve achieved in recent years may not be secure under the Donald Trump administration, and urged them to keep fighting. (Photo: kyle <\/a>tsui\/Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Hillary Clinton told an audience of LGBT advocates Thursday night that the progress they’ve achieved in recent years may not be secure under the Donald Trump administration, and urged them to keep fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that the election hit a lot of us hard,\u201d Clinton said of her bitter loss to Trump in November. \u201cBut I can tell you this: Even when it feels tempting to pull the covers over your head, please keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audience at the fundraising dinner for The Center, an LGBT community group in New York, greeted Clinton with multiple standing ovations and cheers as she accepted the organization’s Trailblazer Award. One of the biggest cheers came when she reiterated remarks she made in Geneva in 2011 as secretary of state: \u201cGay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think we have to face the fact that we may not ever be able to count on this administration to lead on LGBT issues,\u201d Clinton said. \u201cLet’s remember, 2018, the midterm elections … We can never stop fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn’t just in the U.S., Clinton said, that \u201cwe’re seeing clouds gathering on the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve heard terrifying accounts from Chechnya of gay and bisexual men being taken from their homes and families, tortured, even killed,\u201d she said. \u201cThe United States government \u2014 yes, this government \u2014 should demand an end to the persecution of innocent people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In America, she said, \u201cthe progress that we fought for … that we celebrated and maybe even (took) for granted may not be as secure as we once expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

She spoke of protections for transgender students being rescinded, and proposed cuts in funding for HIV and AIDS research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought of all our efforts to try to achieve an AIDS-free generation, and we were on the way,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can, if we stay on that path, finally realize that dream \u2014 but not if we are forced off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clinton’s appearance was one of several in recent months where she has been greeted with huge ovations \u2014 including several at Broadway shows. She joked at the dinner that she realized she was \u201cpreaching to the choir,\u201d but added: \u201cThat’s OK, I love standing ovations.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also quipped that the evening had posed a dilemma for her: She’d had the choice, she said, of attending the dinner or seeing Bette Midler in \u201cHello, Dolly!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really struggled to figure out which event would best reflect my commitment to the community,\u201d she said, adding that she had struck a compromise \u2014 she put on her \u201cSunday Clothes\u201d \u2014 a song title in the show\u2014 and came to the dinner.<\/p>\n

Clinton ended her speech by sharing what she called her new mantra \u2014 \u201cthe kind of thing that does pop into your head when you’re out in the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a good friend or loved one says, ‘Quit yelling at the television set,\u201d’ she said, \u201cJust remember: we need to resist, insist, persist and enlist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also honoured was designer Marc Jacobs, who received the group’s Visionary Award and is a longtime Clinton supporter. When asked what he thought Clinton should do now \u2014 she has said her only plans for the moment are working on her book and finding new ways to help people \u2014 he said, \u201cI wish she were doing what we voted for her to do. But that didn’t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clinton herself gave no hints in her speech about her future, but did note that she had made a new discovery: \u201cSleep is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI highly recommend it,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I wasn’t walking in the woods, I was catching up on my sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Hillary Clinton told an audience of LGBT advocates Thursday night that the progress they’ve achieved in recent …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":99322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,16,17],"tags":[2000],"class_list":["post-99321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news","category-news-w","tag-hillary-clinton","mauthors-jocelyn-noveck","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}