Hillary talks to gay press

”Even states that have civil unions, domestic partnerships or even marriage laws are running into roadblocks with the federal government when it comes to federal benefits and privileges,” she said. ”Of course, immigration is a federal responsibility and I am going to do everything
I can to eliminate any disparities in any benefits or rights under our law at the federal level so that all people will have available to them every right as an American citizen that they should, and that would include immigration law.”

On same-sex marriage, Clinton told the paper: ”(M)arriage is in the province of the state(s), which has actually turned out to be lucky for us, because we didn’t have to get beaten on the Federal Marriage Amendment because we could make, among other arguments, that it was such
a stretch for the federal government and it was wrong to enshrine discrimination in the Constitution. And that states are really beginning seriously to deal with the whole range of options, including marriage, both under their own state constitutions and under the legislative
approach.

”I anticipate that there will be a very concerted amount of effort in the next couple of years that will move this important issue forward and different states will take different approaches as they did with marriage over many years and you will see an evolution over time.”

Clinton also said that if elected, she would attempt to punish nations that harshly oppress gay people, such as Iran, Iraq and Egypt, among others.

”I would be very strongly outspoken about this and it would be part of American foreign policy,” she said. ”There are a number of gross human-rights abuses that countries engage in with whom we have relations and we have to be really vigilant and outspoken in our total repudiation
of those kinds of actions and do everything we can, including using our leverage on matters such as aid, to change the behavior so we can try to prevent such atrocities from happening.”