Late Tuesday, the State Department made 3,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's emails accessible to the public, and with those documents came some exciting news: Clinton's interest in and support of the LGBT community dates back much further than her famous 2011 United Nations speech.
"Being LGBT does not make you less human," she proudly proclaimed four years ago. "And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights."
While Clinton did not officially endorse gay marriage until she left the State Department in 2013, her email record shows a strong support for the community between March and December of 2009.
In one of her most powerful pieces of correspondence, Clinton writes "we should emphasize LGBT human rights" in response to hearing about the torture of gay Iraqi men from her advisor, Cheryl Mills. The conversation is available below:
In addition, Clinton's emails show an ongoing rapport between her department and Richard Socarides, notable LGBT advocate who also served as an advisor to Hilary's husband, Bill. Emails show Socarides forwarding along coverage of breaking news concerning injustices against the LGBT community, as well as Clinton's State Department reaching out with questions and concerns.
A December '09 email from Socarides includes this comment:
There is a lot of appreciation for everything the Dept has done around this so far and I think you could really build on it by putting someone there in charge of international LGBT human right issues.
An official LGBT affairs position was not created during Clinton's time as Secretary of State, but under John Kerry's subsequent tenure a special envoy for the rights of LGBTI persons, Randy Berry, was appointed, according to the Washington Blade.
Hillary Clinton, a hopeful for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination, has run a very LGBT-inclusive campaign thus far and shows no signs of stopping:
