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America's Leading Gay News Source
In first, gays mentioned in inaugural address
President Obama made history by including gays and lesbians in his 2013 inaugural address in two instances. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
In what’s believed to be an historic first, President Barack Obama expressed support for LGBT equality in his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol Monday morning.
“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone,” he said, mentioning the 1969 Stonewall riots by lesbians and gays in New York City along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights work.
President Obama then added, “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
Tagged with Barack Obama, inauguration 2013, Martin Luther King Jr., Stonewall rebellion
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[...] Washington Blade [...]
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IF YOU GENUINELY WANT YOUR “gay brothers and sisters [to be] treated like anyone else under the law,” Mr. President, if you TRULY believe that “if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” that “progress … require[s] us to act in our time,” that “decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay,” that “we must act… we must act….,” then there will be NO MORE DELAY—no WAITING on the NEXT Secretary of Defense to take office MONTHS away—YOU will use YOUR unequivocal authority to order the Pentagon to STOP treating both individual gay and lesbian service members and those in partnerships UNequally NOW; YOU will use that same authority to ban discrimination against LGBTs by federal contractors; and YOU will order YOUR Department of Justice to enter a friend of the court brief telling the Supreme Court that both DOMA and Prop 8 should be overturned. These words were beautiful, but on these issues it is past time to act, Mr. President. ACT!
[Translate]
IF YOU GENUINELY WANT YOUR “gay brothers and sisters [to be] treated like anyone else under the law,” Mr. President, if you TRULY believe that “if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” that “progress … require[s] us to act in our time,” that “decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay,” that “we must act… we must act….,” then there will be NO MORE DELAY—no WAITING on the NEXT Secretary of Defense to take office MONTHS away—YOU will use YOUR unequivocal authority to order the Pentagon to STOP treating both individual gay and lesbian service members and those in partnerships UNequally NOW; YOU will use that same authority to ban discrimination against LGBTs by federal contractors; and YOU will order YOUR Department of Justice to enter a friend of the court brief telling the Supreme Court that both DOMA and Prop 8 should be overturned. These words were beautiful, but on these issues it is past time to act, Mr. President. ACT!
[Translate]