If you are too dangerous to get on a plane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun.

Yes, we've cut the maternal mortality rate in half, but far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don't count for much if they're not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice - not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.

All of us have to recognize that we owe our children more than we have been giving them.

Gay people are born into, and belong to, every society in the world. They are all ages, all races, all faiths. They are doctors and teachers, farmers and bankers, soldiers and athletes. And whether we know it or whether we acknowledge it, they are our family, our friends, and our neighbors. Being gay is not a Western invention. It is a human reality.

Responding to sexism you have to not just remain silent but try to figure out a proper response - again, though, not going to the place of anger and feeling sorry for yourself, because that kind of plays into the hands of the sexists.... It does take practice though.

I don't think that strategically it is smart to begin cutting your options when the other side does not move at all.

The United Nations and the Organization of American States have named 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent. This is an opportunity for all of us around the globe to celebrate the diversity of our societies and to honor the contributions that our fellow citizens of African descent make every day to the economic, social and political fabrics of our communities.