HRC Blog

Dr. Susan Rice lends support to condemning LGBT discrimination among UN member countries

January 26, 2009

Here's another example of how President Obama's cabinet is drastically different from Bush's. Special thanks to Joshua King, HRC's public policy advocate, for this update on Dr. Susan Rice: UPDATE: On Thursday, January 15, 2008 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a confirmation hearing for Dr. Susan Rice (pictured below) to be the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) asked Dr. Rice about last month’s UN resolution on LGBT rights, and the United States’ failure to support it. Dr. Rice stated that the resolution “sought to give voice to something that is very fundamental to President-elect Obama’s world view and indeed to all of us in his incoming administration and that is the absolute necessity to prevent discrimination in any and all forms against any person or people on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or any other basis.” It’s refreshing to see such a different attitude from the incoming Obama Administration, and we look forward to Dr. Rice, once confirmed, leading the U.S. in a new direction on LGBT issues at the United Nations. Here's the transcript of the exchange:

Senator Casey: “As you know in December the UN general assembly in December voted on a nonbinding resolution to condemn discrimination and persecution based upon sexual orientation and gender identity. The resolution aimed to encourage member states to outlaw violence, hate crimes and discrimination by ending the use of the death penalty or extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests of individuals on those grounds. … I just wanted to get your perspective on that resolution and were it come before the UN again how would you approach it as the Permanent Representative to the UN?” Dr. Susan Rice: “Thank you Senator. I think it’s important to highlight the process behind this declaration in the General Assembly, not necessarily a formal resolution, but one that sought to give voice to something that is very fundamental to President-elect Obama’s world view and indeed to all of us in his incoming administration and that is the absolute necessity to prevent discrimination in any and all forms against any person or people on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or any other basis. The President-Elect has spoken frequently and eloquently about his profoundly held view that we are all human beings of equal worth and equal value and the corollary to that is discrimination in any form is absolutely unacceptable and while I can’t comment on what resolutions might come before the General Assembly in the future, I am confident that we will bring that principle to bear in our contemplation and deliberation of any such declaration that comes before the General Assembly.”