On December 6, 2011, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton set into motion a series of events that could change the world as we know it, and change it for the better. Her moving speech on LGBT human rights worldwide has opened the doorway for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered people to be counted as equals in society. 

In her speech, Secretary Clinton spoke frankly of the hardships faced by the LGBT community across the world. In a small excerpt from that speech she says:  

It is a 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.

By John "Jasz" Szlachetka, Feature Author

John Szlachetka, also known as Jasz to many of his friends, has been an activist, speaker, and writer for LGBT rights, for a number of years.  A former high school teacher, he has seen the discrimination and bullying  LGBT youth face everyday.   He himself has lived through discrimination and homophobia both from his family and society in general.  This has made him stronger and more determined to fight for the equality of his LGBT brothers and sisters.   Besides his activism, he also councels LGBT couples with problems that arise in their relationships.  He is also a pastor for the Universal Life Church.    When he is not marrying couples, he is saving them from crisis.   You can also find him in many different facebook groups, fighting along side his LGBT brothers and sisters. 

As a member of the 10,000 couples team, Jasz hopes to promote both the e-magazine, and to to bring more couples into our 10,000 couples family.  Now that Same-Sex-Marriage has become an important subject world wide, he wants bring together everyone in the LGBT community to fight for the rights of our community.

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