Remarks
Ambassador D. Brent Hardt
Opening of SASOD/U.S. Embassy’s
Media LGBT Sensitization Workshop
Saturday, April 13, 2013, 9:00 a.m.
At Moray House Trust, Georgetown
Zenita
Nicholson, Secretary of SASOD,
Dr.
Roberto Brant Campos, Country Representative of UNAIDS,
Representatives
of the Guyana Press Association (GPA),
Media
Executives, Publishers, Editors, and Columnists,
Good
morning. Thank you for being part of
this path-breaking human rights workshop.
In 1776, the United States Declaration of Independence boldly
proclaimed: "We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
There were no qualifications or fine print that said one's rights depend
on who you love or what you believe. Human
rights, as we have discovered often painfully in our own history, are for all
human beings, or they are not rights at all.
We
all know that the issue of LGBT rights is considered sensitive for many people
and many governments. We know that the
obstacles people seek to place in the way of protecting the human rights of fellow
citizens who are LGBT are often said to arise from deeply held personal, political,
cultural, and religious beliefs. But the
issue is rightly most sensitive and essential to those in the LGBT
community. For the rights at stake are
your rights. Others may ponder and
pontificate about what rights you should or should not have. But at the end of the day, we are talking
about your rights, your exercise of equality, and your enjoyment of freedom. This affects you, not others. Efforts of others to constrain your rights,
by contrast, do not directly affect them, but do affect you.
While
progress in advancing LGBT rights has never been easy, I believe we are
beginning to witness a profound shift in global understanding of such
rights. In the United States, public
opinion has shifted dramatically over the past decade. A decade ago, for example, the public opposed
gay marriage by a solid majority, with nearly 60 percent opposing and only 34
percent in support. Today, by contrast,
around 52 percent support gay marriage, while only 42 percent remain
opposed. In the 1990's, the only way gay
people were accepted within the military was on the basis that they keep their
sexuality to themselves -- that they "don't tell." That barrier toppled two years ago, and today
gay service members serve without hindrance and with full respect. The purveyors of gloom and doom who had said
African Americans could never serve alongside whites, or that women could never
serve alongside men, have also been proven wrong in this case. That is an important lesson of history for
societies and governments today. When
people tell you things just can't be done, that's when you know they can.
In
the United States and in countries throughout the world, including Guyana, it
is long past time to put our shared belief in the universality of human rights
into action: into new laws and a new
spirit of respect and solidarity for our fellow citizens. It is in this spirit that I am pleased to
have this opportunity to meet with you this morning to discuss the way forward
to a stronger local, national, and international consensus that fully recognizes
and respects the rights of LGBT citizens, our brothers and sisters, sons and
daughters, friends and family.
LGBT Rights are Human Rights
Some
have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct; but,
in fact, they are one and the same. Sixty
years ago, the governments that drafted and passed the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights were not thinking about how it applied to the LGBT community. They also weren’t thinking specifically about
how it applied to indigenous peoples or children or people with disabilities or
other marginalized groups. Yet in the
past sixty years, we have come to recognize that these so-called groups of
people are entitled to the full measure of dignity and rights, not because they
are a member of a distinct group, but because they are simply people with whom
we share the common bonds of humanity.
It is a
violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed because of their
sexual orientation, or because they do not conform to cultural norms about how
men and women should look or behave. It
is a violation of human rights when governments declare it illegal to be gay,
or allow those who harm gay people to go unpunished. It is a violation of human rights when lesbian
or transgender women are subjected to so-called corrective rape, or forcibly
subjected to hormone treatments, or when people are murdered after public calls
for violence toward gays, or when they are forced to flee their countries and
seek asylum in other lands to save their lives.
And, it is a violation of human rights when life-saving care is withheld
from people because they are gay, or equal access to justice is denied to
people because they are gay, or public spaces are out of bounds to people
because they are gay. No matter what we
look like, where we come from, or who we are, we are all equally entitled to
our human rights and dignity.
Religious and Cultural Values
One of
the most challenging issues arises when people cite religious or cultural norms
and practices as a reason to violate or not to protect the human rights of LGBT
citizens. This is not unlike the
justification offered for some allegedly traditional violent practices towards
women, such as honor killings, widow burning, or female genital
mutilation. Some people still defend
those practices as part of cultural traditions.
But violence toward women isn't cultural; it's criminal.
Here,
the example and history of slavery is instructive. Slavery was once justified as sanctioned by
God, but it is now properly reviled as an unconscionable violation of human
rights. Racial discrimination was once
widely accepted as justified on the basis of alleged genetic superiority or
inferiority of different ethnic groups, but this has long been recognized for
the gross fallacy it was. In each of
these cases, we have come to learn that no practice, tradition, or custom trumps
the universal human rights with which we are, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the
U.S. Declaration of Independence, "endowed by our Creator." And the
same is now is happening to the antiquated beliefs that inflicting or accepting
violence or even murder on LGBT people, criminalizing their status or behavior,
expelling them from their families and communities, denying them the right to legal
partnerships or marriage is acceptable. Perhaps
the best retort to such discrimination is the remark that Abraham Lincoln made
in 1865: "When I hear anyone
arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him
personally."
In
this context, it is essential to point out that most religious traditions and
teachings are not in conflict with the protection of human rights. Indeed, our religions and our cultures are most
often sources of compassion and inspiration toward our fellow human beings. In fact, our common commitment to defend
freedom of religion and the dignity of LGBT people emanates from a common
source. For many of us, religious belief
and practice is a vital source of meaning and identity, and fundamental to who
we are as people. And likewise, the bonds
of love and family that we forge are also vital sources of meaning and
identity. Caring for others and loving
others are both reflections of our faith and our family bonds, and both are expressions
of what it means to be fully human. It
is because this human experience of
faith and love is universal that human rights are universal and cut across all
religions and cultures.
The Way Forward: Legislation
History
teaches us many lessons about how we progress as humanity toward universal rights
for all people. Progress starts with
honest and open discussion. Happily, universal
human rights include the freedom of expression and freedom of belief, even if
words or beliefs may denigrate the humanity of others. But
human rights do not end with discussion, and understanding takes more than
speech. For while we are individually free
to believe and to say whatever we choose, we cannot do whatever we choose if,
in our acting, we infringe on the rights of others. That is why we respect the rule of law and protect
the rights of all, including the most vulnerable. For it is in the debating and shaping of laws
that we define as a society the constraints imposed on our exercise of
individual freedom by the demands of the rights of others.
Achieving
good, just, and equitable legislation that balances rights and often stark
differences of opinion must begin with a willingness to discuss and debate
openly in public forums and in the National Assembly. While there may be differences of opinion,
that difference is a reason to begin a conversation, not avoid it. And that conversation and debate must lead to
legislation that protects rights for all.
It is
important to note that, while changing attitudes can lead to changes in law,
the opposite is also true. Many times in
the history of my own country, the first step toward progress has come from
changes in law. Legal protections have
preceded, not followed, broader recognition of rights. Our civil rights laws in the mid-1960s came
at a time when racial discrimination was still widespread, and attitudes in
many states remained mired in quagmires of racial hatred and distrust. In so many cases, the laws -- whether the
Voting Rights Act or others -- forced people to reconsider old traditions and
attitudes. They had a teaching effect
that helped build new practices and attitudes.
Laws that require equal protections reinforce the moral imperative of
equality. So, practically speaking, it
is often the case that laws must change before widely accepted attitudes and fears
dissipate and evolve. That is why U.S.
President Millard Fillmore once observed:
"The law is the only sure protection of the weak and the only
efficient restraint upon the strong."
The Way Forward: Global Efforts
So how
do we do our part to advance the global effort to ensure respect for human
rights for all people, including LGBT people?
The LGBT community, as we see here today, can help lead this effort. Your knowledge and personal experiences are
invaluable, and your courage is inspirational.
While it is too often true that those who are denied rights are least
empowered to bring about the changes they seek, by acting together as in SASOD,
you can achieve much more to spark new thinking, new attitudes, and new laws
than by acting alone.
When
any of our brothers and sisters cannot enjoy their full and equal human rights,
the rest of us cannot sit on the sidelines.
Every time a barrier to progress has fallen, it has taken a common and
united effort from people on all sides of a racial, gender, cultural or
religious barrier. In the fight for
women’s rights, the support of men remains crucial. The fight for racial equality has relied on
contributions from people of all races. Combating
Islamaphobia or anti-Semitism is a task for people of all faiths. And the same is true with this struggle for
equality. People of all sexual
orientations must come to see this for what it is -- a fight for our common
humanity.
Conversely,
when we see denials and abuses of human rights and fail to act, that sends the
message to those deniers and abusers that they won’t suffer any consequences
for their actions, and so they carry on.
But when we do act, we send a powerful moral message.
The Way Forward: Guyana
I firmly
believe we can work together here in Guyana and in every region of the world to
galvanize more support for the human rights of LGBT communities and
individuals. The Government has been
conducting a National Consultation on LGBT issues, and that conversation is a
positive step. But as I noted earlier,
conversation and dialogue must lead to action, and specifically to legislation
that replaces antiquated colonial laws with modern, national laws that advance
the rights of all Guyanese people. Leadership,
by definition, means being out in front of the people one leads. It requires courage in standing up for the
dignity of all fellow citizens and persuading others to do the same. And that is what is now required in the
National Assembly and among all parties.
Beyond
legislative progress, it is vital to recognize that the lives of our gay brothers
and sisters are shaped not only by laws, but also by the way they are treated
and accepted every day by families, friends, business colleagues, and neighbors. "Laws can restrain the heartless,"
Martin Luther King observed, "but they cannot restrain the
heart." That is why respect for rights
must also begin in the small places close to home – the streets where people
live, the schools they attend, the factories, farms, and offices where they
work. The actions people take in these
daily interactions, the words they express, and the ideals they embody, will determine
whether Guyana will ensure that human rights for all Guyanese, regardless of
race, religion, or sexual orientation, will flourish.
Way Forward: The United States
Under
President Obama's leadership, the United States has moved with increasing vigor
to defend the human rights of LGBT people in the United States and worldwide as
part of our domestic commitment to equality, as part of our comprehensive human
rights advocacy, and as a priority of our foreign policy.
In
2011, President Obama put into place the first U.S. Government strategy
dedicated to combating human rights abuses against LGBT persons abroad. Building on efforts already underway at the
State Department and across the government, the President directed all U.S.
Government agencies engaged overseas to combat the criminalization of LGBT
status and conduct, to enhance efforts to protect vulnerable LGBT refugees and
asylum seekers, to ensure that our foreign assistance promotes the protection
of LGBT rights, to enlist international organizations in the fight against
discrimination, and to respond swiftly to abuses against LGBT persons.
At
home, the President repealed the discriminatory: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy
within the U.S. military, he signed historic hate crimes legislation, he
ensured hospital visitation rights for LGBT partners, ended the practice of
defending in court the Defense of Marriage Act, and announced his support for
repeal of the Act. Political leaders
across our political spectrum are increasingly speaking out in defense of LGBT
rights and gay marriage. The tide has
turned.
U.S. Embassy LGBT Efforts
In our embassies around
the world, our diplomats are working to raise concerns about specific cases where
human rights have been violated and laws continue to discriminate. We are working globally with a range of
partners to strengthen human rights protections for all. Our public support for the human rights of
LGBT individuals sends a powerful signal of support for the efforts of civil
society groups and individuals under threat.
We report on the human rights of LGBT people in our annual, country-specific
Human Rights Reports. We host public
discussions and private roundtables, publish opinion editorials, and support
Pride events. We also seek to engage governments and stakeholders on
a bilateral and regional level to encourage countries to repeal or reform laws
that criminalize LGBT conduct or status.
The U.S. government is determined to reinforce the human rights of LGBT people in multilateral for a. We are identifying effective partners
and working with the broader human rights community to build greater recognition
and respect for the human rights of LGBT persons. This weekend’s workshop is a wonderful example
of such collaboration.
Our Embassy in Guyana will
continue to support LGBT human rights defenders and civil society groups. Last year, Embassy representatives participated
in SASOD’s UPR meetings to learn more about their efforts to lead change in
Guyana. Last year, we hosted an LGBT
Roundtable at the Embassy to discuss issues of major concern directly with
stakeholders. We sent a reporter to the
United States to participate in a Foreign Press Center Tour entitled: “A Developing Narrative: LGBT Issues in the United States.” Only last
week, we supported a workshop on Human Rights documentation. We are also seeking to reach the broader
public through social media, exchange programs, and speaker programs. We look forward to future opportunities for
collaboration.
Conclusion
President
Barack Obama once said: “Every single
American - gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender - every single
American deserves to be treated equally in the eyes of the law and in the eyes
of our society.” I speak today recognizing
that my own country's record on human rights for gay people is far from
perfect. Many LGBT Americans have
endured violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some, including
many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily experiences. So we, like all nations, have much more work
to do to protect human rights at home.
There
is a phrase that people in the United States invoke when urging others to
support human rights: “Be on the right
side of history.” The story of the
United States is the story of a nation that has repeatedly grappled with
intolerance and inequality. People from
coast to coast joined in campaigns to recognize the rights of women, indigenous
peoples, racial minorities, children, people with disabilities, immigrants, migrant
workers, and many more. Throughout all
of these ups and downs, dark chapters and brighter visions of our history, the
march toward equality and justice has continued. Those who advocate for expanding the circle
of human rights have been and remain on the right side of history, and history
honors them. Those who have sought to restrict
human rights were on the wrong side, and history reflects that as well.
As
Martin Luther King, Jr. best observed:
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward
justice." Today, I am confident
that we are on the down slope of the arc, accelerating every day toward the
goal of equality and justice for all citizens, regardless of sexual
orientation. Belief will once again converge
with truth, the immutable truth that all persons are created free and equal in
dignity and rights. So let us be on the
right side of history, for our people, our nations, and for future generations,
whose lives will be shaped by the work we do today.
Thank you very much
