I had secured a decent number of changes to the speech on other human rights issues, and I was resigned to the fact that this would not be the year President Obama took on LGBT rights at the UN. When I woke up a couple of hours later, though, Ben had forwarded me the final version of the speech with the words “Happy Birthday” at the top of the email. My birthday (and Cass’s) always fell during UNGA week. In the craze, I had forgotten it. This birthday present—like Holbrooke’s wedding gift of a meeting with Hillary Clinton—was unusual, but much appreciated.
