- The US is showing strong support for LGBT rights through its representation at Baltic Pride 2012. Why do you want to support this event?
- It is a very explicit part of our foreign policy agenda and our human rights agenda to support LGBT rights so Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent me here when US Embassy in Latvia and the US Government were invited to participate by the organizers of the event. As the Secretary of State has said on many occasions, gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights. What’s happening today is a peaceful assembly and expression of a political viewpoint, and we think that should be supported so our ambassadors from both Latvia and Estonia were marching in the parade.
- You mentioned the right to freedom of assembly. Both Latvia and Lithuania are democratic countries, but both of them are struggling in this regard. Certain groups face problems when requesting permission from the authorities, and events are at risk of being banned on grounds of ensuring public order. Do you think it is possible to allow absolute freedom of assembly if there is a risk of it bringing unruly crowds to the streets?
- Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are newly restored democracies, and it is their remarkable success in consolidating democratic systems that has led to their entry into the European Union, NATO and the family of democratic nations. All democratic countries struggle to find the right balance between public order and liberty.
Habits of democratic assembly and procedures by municipal and other authorities to facilitate peaceful assembly are now being developed in these countries. We know that some Baltic Pride events in recent years in the region have led to some counter-demonstrations and even some violence. We hope that there’s a learning process going on, and we are confident that Latvia and its neighbours will find the right way forward.
- How do you see Lithuania and Latvia in the wider European context as countries, which are struggling with freedom of assembly and even freedom of speech?
- If you look at the treatment of immigrant communities and linguistic, ethnic and religions minorities across Europe, these problems are shared by old and new EU member states. I think what Latvia and Lithuania are going through reflects what it means to be European in the 21st century.
No law is self-enforcing but requires people to speak up, to say what they think it means, argue about it, take their views to court if necessary, and respect the democratic outcome in the short term, but, if you’re still unhappy with the policy, to continue to raise your voice and challenge authorities to revise and improve their policies going forward.
- The US is making efforts both at home and overseas to encourage an active civil society. For instance, Hillary Clinton has visited Lithuania, Poland and other parts of Europe, actively encouraging people to stand up and speak up for human rights. What’s the reason behind such initiatives? What’s the goal of the Obama administration in this respect?
- President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and much less famous people like myself spent most of our careers in civil society before getting involved in government, so I think this administration has particular appreciation for the values of civil society in modern democracy. However, it is a longstanding interest of the United States, which I think has only been heightened in this administration, to support independent civil society as a way for citizens to express their views to governments.
- So ideas from civil society should be initiatives for change?
- That’s what public policy is. It’s always about how to solve problems that the community or society faces based on new developments, new technology and new understanding of problems that society deals with whether economic, social or international. We have to constantly revisit our policies and try to improve them. One of the ways we improve them is by listening to people’s ideas. Civil society is also a service provider in many cases. As well as proposing solutions to problems, civil society often actually implements solutions.
- Hillary Clinton first started talking about women’s rights and later about LGBT issues, giving an important speech on this topic at the UN last December. President Obama has continued talking about these issues, and has even voiced support for marriage equality. Has this been a planned path?
- I see this as a natural progression of widening our discourse on what human rights mean. Obviously Secretary Clinton is not the first US official to express concern for women’s rights, but she brings a particular passion to the issue. She also came into office with a very acute appreciation for LGBT rights. On the very first day she was in office she ordered the State Department to change some internal policies on how we as an organisation treat same-sex couples, making their opportunities and benefits equal to those enjoyed by heterosexual couples.
What President Obama articulated last month on marriage equality was an evolution of his own personal thinking about same-sex marriage as a policy and legal matter. I think his public statement of evolving ideas very much reflects American society today. We are in the middle of a national debate and learning process about LGBT rights. It’s not so much a planned strategic initiative as the realization in the United States of enhanced appreciation for the rights of same-sex couples and LGBT rights more generally.
- A recent ruling in a federal court in Boston found the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, unconstitutional. What do you think will happen next?
- There are a number of different legal challenges to state laws playing out in courts across the United States. I think everyone expects that different specific constitutional questions will eventually get to the Supreme Court. I think it is impossible to predict when this will happen, whether the Supreme Court will choose to accept these cases, and what decisions it might make.
- What is the position of the White House?
- It’s very clear. The President ordered the Justice Department at the beginning of the administration to no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act. That’s partly what contributed to the outcome in Massachusetts.
- How do you see the situation on a global level? Human rights violations and abuses are taking place around the world, for example LGBT people in the Ukraine and Saint Petersburg were recently beaten up. Do you think the US has an impact in solving such problems?
- You’re describing the continuing challenges that we in the United States and our friends in other democracies are confronting in the wider world, in which there are human rights shortcomings in our own countries and some real serious human rights abuses in too many places in the world that continue even in the second decade of the 21st century. We in the United States depend on our friends in other democracies to join us in speaking up for the victims of oppression in dictatorships and speaking up for ever better policies on our own part to ensure that we are as good models for democracy and human rights as we can be. We look forward to working with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and other European countries in what will surely be a long-term effort in many parts of the world, and I’m glad that the Baltic States are part of that larger effort in the wider world, helping cement democratic habits and institutions in third countries and representing increasingly strong models of democratic performance at home.
- Next year, Baltic Pride will be held in Lithuania, a country in which there has not only been resistance to LGBT marches, but where MPs have intervened in events and insulted LGBT people. Will the US administration support Baltic Pride in Lithuania as it has in Latvia?
- I expect and hope so. We have a presidential election coming up, so it’s not sure who will lead our government a year from now, but I’m hopeful and confident that in this respect our policies will continue regardless of who wins the election. I don’t know if I’ll be in this job a year from now, but if I am and I’m invited, I would like to come to Vilnius.
