against gays and lesbians – certainly discrimination and prejudice – are not just occurring, but condoned and protected. We would hope that over the next few years, we could have some influence in trying to change those attitudes.” [Remarks at a European Town Hall, state.gov, 3/6/09] Sec. Clinton: “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.” According to Sec. Clinton’s remarks on International Human Rights Day, “It is 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 transgendered 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 nations 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.” [Remarks in Recognition of International Human Rights Day, state.gov, 12/6/11]