Was she wrong?

  International Human
  Rights Day

And to people of all nations, I say, supporting human rights is your respon-sibility too. The lives of gay people are shaped not only by laws, but by the treatment they receive every day from their families, from their neighbors. Eleanor Roosevelt, who did so much to advance human rights worldwide, said that these rights 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. These places are your domain. The actions you take, the ideals that you advocate, can de-termine whether human rights flourish where you are.

I have read, with interest, some refusals of Mrs Clinton's advice in Geneva this week, anticipating this day's marking of Human Rights. I have read Mr Perry's statements; I have read fear that Mr Perry would state them. She was right to press forward.

Refusal of her advice amounts to a capitulation to a loy-alty oath, engendered by the Star Chamber (which condemned Thomas More) to incriminate one's own conscience. I grew up in a generation which suckled at the teat of self-dread on that very pretext of wisdom which conceded the indictment of deviancy, and sustained the deadly lie of voluntary identity. I watched fear corrupt every mentor I ever knew, and destroy almost every friend I ever had. It does not work. The young don't know the carrion stench of misplaced reticence. I don't want them, ever, to.

  
















The Secretary of State
  of the United States
Palais des Nations, Geneva
December 6th, 2011