U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement Tuesday urging Iran not to carry out a planned execution of 18-year-old Ebrahim Hamidi, who was convicted of committing homosexual acts.

According to a report in the Guardian, Hamidi was convicted even though he had no legal representation.  His lawyer was recently forced to flee Iran after authorities detained some of his family members.  After his conviction, Hamidi’s accuser recanted his testimony, but authorities are reportedly planning to carry out a death sentence anyway.

Iran has drawn condemnation before for hanging youths convicted of homosexual acts.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today addressed a State Department audience on LGBT issues in the human rights work of the United States, declaring, “Let me say today that human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights, once and for all.”

Clinton went on to detail specific LGBT-related efforts her department is engaged in around the world, most pointedly in Africa, where there has been a dramatic uptick in anti-LGBT rhetoric among government officials.

Clinton then turned her attention to the professionals and State Department’s LGBT staffers in the room, thanking them for engaging in careers in diplomacy while being out and honest about themselves.  But she cautioned them not to delude themselves into thinking the fight for equality is over:

“The struggle for equality is never, ever finished.  And it is rarely easy, despite how self-evident it should be.  But the hardest-fought battles often have the biggest impact.  So I hope that each and every one of us will recommit ourselves to building a future in which every person – every, single person can live in dignity, free from violence, free to be themselves, free to live up to their God-given potential wherever they live and whoever they are.”

UPDATE:  A full transcript of Clinton’s remarks is available here.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a keynote speech this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, said the Obama administration is “standing up for gays and lesbians who deserve to be treated as full human beings,” adding, “these are priorities of the United States.”

She told attendees she had called the president of Uganda to express “our strongest concerns about a law being considered in the parliament of Uganda,” referring to what has come to be called the “Kill the Gays” bill because it would implement a death sentence for certain crimes involving homosexual activity.

The prayer breakfast, an annual tradition that brings together world leaders in Washington, is sponsored by The Fellowship Foundation, which some accuse of having ties to anti-gay leaders in Uganda who have proposed the legislation Clinton condemned.

In a recorded statement congratulating the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) on being named “Employee Resource Group of the Year,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the U.S. State Department is now tracking violence against the LGBT community across the world and “condemns human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity wherever they occur.”

Considering yesterday’s historic passage of hate crimes legislation came nearly a month after this video was recorded, it appears that Clinton is once again a step ahead of Congress in pushing pro-LGBT policies through the State Department.

In a letter sent today, out Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to address inequities in employment practices concerning gay and lesbian State Department employees.

Joined by Sens. Russ Feingold and Ron Wyden and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Baldwin wrote:

“The lack of equitable treatment could force dedicated, intelligent, and needed FSOs (Foreign Service Officers) and officials to make an unfortunate choice between serving their country and protecting their families.  As you noted during the question and answer session of your Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing, many other nations now extend training, protection, and benefits to the partners of LGBT employees.  Further, the State Department’s past inattention to these disparities places it below parity with the best employment practices used in the private sector, where the majority of Fortune 500 companies extend employee benefit programs to cover the domestic partners.  Without remedying these inequities, the State Department may fail to attract and retain qualified personnel.”

Baldwin and her fellow legislators specifically asked Clinton, among other things, to institute:

– Inclusion in travel orders for same-sex domestic partners of Foreign Service Officers (FSOs)
– Access to training, including all language classes, area studies, and embassy effectiveness classes for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
– Emergency evacuation and medevac from post when necessary for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
– Access to post health units for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
– Visa support for same-sex domestic partners accompanying FSOs to overseas postings, and for same-sex foreign-born domestic partners accompanying FSOs to postings in Washington or elsewhere in the U.S.