In 2011, this newspaper made Hillary Clinton its ‘Person of the Year,” in no small part due to her groundbreaking speech on behalf of international gay and lesbian human rights.

 Today, that speech is reprinted in our newspaper. It is a visionary talk, and a compelling reason for us to embrace the Clinton candidacy.

On another page, a guest columnist shares with you his reasons for supporting Hillary Clinton, addressing her past flaws and current positives. We do so for a few other simple reasons as well.

First and foremost, it is time our nation had a female president, and Clinton is eminently qualified to fulfill that role. To have a candidate speaking about building bridges and breaking down barriers is better than a candidate who talks about his erections on one hand, and erecting walls with the other.

Second, as Clinton says, America does not need to be made ‘great again.’ We have been doing pretty well the last eight years under a progressive Obama presidency. Within a country that has seen the economy grow, the LGBT community has grown exponentially too. We have had leaders appointed and elected to positions of influence and stature at every level.

In the past eight years, our national spokespersons have advocated to enhance human rights everywhere. Our nation has been on the right side of history for the rights of the LGBT community. With same sex marriage winning in the Supreme Court by only a 5-4 vote, how important it is that we further the advancement of human rights with progressive nominees. 

Simultaneously, we have seen health care expanded, minority outreach improved, and the least of us protected, regardless of class or standing in the community.

Obamacare was a vision first proposed by Hillary as First Lady back in 1992. It is not the anathema Ted Cruz makes it out to be. It is an antidote to heal the sick and treat the ill. It is only in its infancy. Clinton will work to protect it, not to repeal it.

Early on the Obama Administration saved the economy and restored financial growth to banking institutions that had collapsed. While doing so, Americans everywhere were afforded mortgage modifications that allowed them to stay in their homes.

Real estate prices are restored, the stock market is gaining, and gas prices are $1.35, lower than at any time in the last 25 years. That’s a testimony to a robust economy. In city after city, there is massive highway construction and thoroughfare expansion.

To his credit, Bernie Sanders also speaks of inclusion, and he would certainly create some firsts of his own, as the first Jewish president, as the oldest person ever elected to office. But his experiences are limited and they have not evolved on the global stage. His economic plans do not steer far away from Clinton’s visions. But Clinton’s policies are more attainable and she has a history of working across the aisle to accomplish real change. She learned valuable lessons during her push for Hillarycare and we don’t expect her to make the same mistakes again.

So we choose first to stand by the friend who has stood by us.

Our world is uneasy with terror and crisis in the Mideast and elsewhere. It has been so for decades and the instability and chaos there has never been directly attributable to either Republicans or Democrats. 

Madmen exist in our world, from North Korea to the last prime minister of Iran. 

In America, this year we are offering our own lunacy in the Republican primary, led by Donald Trump, who is neither conservative or liberal, just nastily narcissistic, fostering a nationalism based on hate and hostility, segregation and separation. His bipolar campaign and persona borders on Neo-Fascism, and our equations to the early days of Adolf Hitler have a ring of truth to them, like it or not.

We also believe that Clinton is the best candidate positioned to take on the Republican nominee in the general election. She is only one that has faced the full assault of the Republican attack machine again and again over the past 30 years. She’s been knocked down, but never knocked out. She proved to this country her resiliency when she testified for 11 hours in front of the Benghazi committee. She walked away unfazed and unbroken. 

We support Hillary Clinton because she has spent a lifetime supporting human rights issues, from children’s rights as a legal advocate, to women’s rights as First Lady, and LGBT rights as a secretary of state.

We stand by the promise of an enlightened future rather than a return to a regressive past. We stand by a candidate appealing to the best in all of us, rather than the klandidate hiding behind false veils.

We stand by Hillary Clinton. We are with her.