News
Looking back: Gay mentions during State of the Union
Clinton, Bush and Obama addressed gays during speeches before Congress
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama each mentioned issues relevant to the LGBT community during their State of the Union addresses. (Photos public domain)
The State of the Union address is considered a pivotal speech for U.S. presidents in shaping their agenda for the year ahead, and the last three haven’t shied from including LGBT people in their proposed policies.
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama each made references to policy items affecting LGBT people. Clinton was the first, Bush’s proposed policies were entirely negative and Obama has incorporated LGBT people into his speeches consistently.
The Washington Blade has complied a list of mentions of LGBT issues in State of the Union speeches, all of which were made in recent times. The list doesn’t include mentions of HIV-related items, although Clinton, Bush and Obama each called on Congress to appropriate funds to combat the disease in their speeches.
1999 — Clinton calls for hate crimes, ENDA passage
President Clinton made a reference to two pieces of landmark legislation during his 1999 State of the Union, calling on Congress to pass hate crimes protections legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
“Discrimination or violence because of race or religion, ancestry or gender, disability or sexual orientation, is wrong, and it ought to be illegal,” Clinton said. “Therefore, I ask Congress to make the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of the land.”
After the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard near Laramie, Wyo., in 1996, Clinton had endorsed legislation to make violent crimes based on anti-gay animus part of federal law. Clinton was also known as a supporter of ENDA, a bill that in its current version would bar workplace discrimination against LGBT people.
2000 – Clinton makes first explicit reference of ‘gay’
The next year, Clinton tried again to encourage Congress to pass hate crimes protection legislation and ENDA, saying for the first time during a State of the Union address the word “gay.”
Clinton made the appeal to pass both pieces of legislation when talking about incidents of hate crimes against minorities throughout the country.
“We saw a young man murdered in Wyoming just because he was gay,” Clinton said. “Last year we saw the shootings of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Jewish children just because of who they were. This is not the American way, and we must draw the line. I ask you to draw that line by passing without delay the Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.”
After Clinton’s call, hate crimes legislation received a floor vote in 2000 as part of an amendment to the major Pentagon budget legislation. No attempt was made to pass ENDA on the floor that year.
Congress passed hate crimes legislation nine years later under President Obama; ENDA continues to languish in Congress and no explicit federal non-discrimination protections for LGBT workers are in place.
2004 — Bush calls for anti-gay constitutional amendment
Preparing for his re-election campaign, President George W. Bush made a reference in his 2004 State of the Union speech affecting gay people, but in a negative way.
In the year after the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalized marriage equality, Bush used his speech to call for a U.S. constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying “a strong America must also value the institution of marriage.”
“Activist judges, however, have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives,” Bush said. “On an issue of such great consequence, the people’s voice must be heard. If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process. Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.”
Following his call for a Federal Marriage Amendment, both chambers of the Republican-controlled Congress vote on the measure, but the measure failed in both chambers.
Bush’s call for the amendment so invoked the ire of then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was present in the audience, that he elected on his own to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in San Francisco City Hall. His actions were later rescinded by the California Supreme Court.
2005 — Bush renews call for federal marriage amendment
Fresh off his re-election win after campaigning on a Federal Marriage Amendment and the passage of 11 state constitutional anti-gay marriage amendments, Bush renewed his call for a Federal Marriage Amendment.
“Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be redefined by activist judges,” Bush said. “For the good of families, children, and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.”
Although Congress had additional Republican majorities since the previous votes in 2004, the measure failed yet again in both the House and the Senate.
2006 — Bush isn’t done with the FMA
Despite the previous failures of the Federal Marriage Amendment, Bush continued to express concerns about the advancement of same-sex marriage in his 2006 State of the Union address.
“Yet many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture and the health of our most basic institutions,” Bush said. “They’re concerned about unethical conduct by public officials and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage.”
That would be the last time Bush would express concerns about same-sex marriage during a State of the Union address. On Election Day in 2006, Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, giving them control of the floor.
2009 — Obama omits gays from first speech
Although he would later be known for building a record on LGBT rights, President Obama made no explicit reference to LGBT issues during a speech before a joint session of Congress during his first year in office. All his future speeches would make some reference to gay-related issues.
The omission is in line with the perception that Obama was reluctant to tackle LGBT issues, which had proved thorny for President Clinton during his first year in office.
Because the speech was at the start of his first term, the address also technically wasn’t a State of the Union address, but a speech before a joint session of Congress.
2010 — Obama pledges to work to repeal “Don’t Ask’
Obama’s first mention of any gay issue during a State of the Union address was in 2010 in which he pledged to move forward with the process of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.
“This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are,” Obama said.
Amid increasing pressure for Obama to act on ending the ban on openly gay service members, LGBT advocates widely praised the words — even those critical of him for not taking executive action to stop the discharges.
And Obama’s words during the speech were prophetic. After a 10-month study at the Pentagon and long struggle of moving legislation through the Congress to repeal the 1993 law, Obama signed legislation at the end of the year repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
2011 — Obama pledges to finish the job on ‘Don’t Ask’ repeal
A month after having signed the repeal into law, Obama made another reference to the ban on open service by pledging to certify “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by the end of the year.
“Our troops come from every corner of this country,” Obama said. “They’re black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American. They are Christian and Hindu, Jewish and Muslim. And yes, we know that some of them are gay. Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love.”
Although President Obama signed repeal legislation in the previous month, the ban would only be lifted after he, the defense secretary and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certified the military was ready for repeal.
With no timetable included in the repeal legislation for when certification would have to take place, Obama’s words allayed concerns the process would go on indefinitely with no formal lifting of the ban on open service.
But Obama immediately giving those reassurances called on colleges to allow military recruiters on campuses. Many had barred there presence because they perceived the ban on open service as discriminatory.
“And with that change, I call on all our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and ROTC,” Obama said. “It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation.”
Those words drew concern from transgender advocates because although the ban on openly gay service was lifted, the ban on openly trans service was — and remains — still in place.
2012 — Obama includes gays in shout-out to U.S. troops
As part of a general effort to tout “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal heading into his re-election campaign, Obama in his 2012 State of the Union listed gay troops as among those serving in the armed forces.
“When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, Asian, Latino, Native American; conservative, liberal; rich, poor; gay, straight,” Obama said.
By this time, certification for open service in the U.S. military had already taken place months ago in September and gay service members were serving openly without fear of discharge.
But that was the only explicit LGBT mention during the State of the Union address, prompting advocates at the time to express disappointment he went no further.
2013 — Obama touts benefits for gay troops
Obama won praise from advocates for his 2013 State of the Union speech by making two references to the gay community, one overt and the other less explicit.
The most overt reference was an appeal to the nation to agree that gay service members are entitled to the same spousal benefits as straight troops.
“We will ensure equal treatment for all servicemembers and equal benefits for their families, gay and straight,” Obama said.
Just weeks earlier under significant pressure from LGBT advocates, the Pentagon pledged to move forward with partner benefits for gay troops available under the law and would have them in place later in the year.
But he also made an implicit gay reference early on in the speech by saying he wants the economy to work for Americans regardless of “who you love” — an apparent reference to gay people that some took as a veiled reference to ENDA.
“It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country: the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like or who you love,” Obama said.
2014 — What will happen?
It remains to be seen whether Obama will make any LGBT references in his 2014 State of the Union address on Tuesday. LGBT advocates are calling on him to ask Congress to pass ENDA, pledge to sign an executive order barring LGBT discrimination among federal contractors and explicitly use the word “transgender.”
News
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
After 35 years in law and advocacy, Rawle Andrews Jr. returns to his roots
Rawle Andrews Jr. took an indirect path to become executive director of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF).
From a psychology major in college to becoming a lawyer, the passion for equity and inclusion that fueled him during his years at AARP and as a professor at Howard and Georgetown universities serves as the foundation for his career in mental health.
Andrews has made it his mission at APAF to prioritize youth mental health — including in schools in D.C. and across the country — and to reduce stigma around mental illness and increase the number of psychiatrists of color practicing in the U.S.
Andrews, who began his educational career studying psychology, said he felt out of place in college when his classmates were pursuing medical careers and he was more interested in law.
“I was the only person in my cohort who was going to law school,” he said. “Everybody else wanted to be a doctor and go to medical school.”
Everything changed for Andrews during the COVID-19 pandemic and after George Floyd was killed by police in Missouri: Those pivotal moments reshaped national conversations about health, race, and inequality, and pushed Andrews to rethink his career.
“I saw people deathly afraid of some disease, but also mortified by the fact that they witnessed somebody die on TV,” he said.
After nearly 16 years working as a lawyer in private practice and 15 years at AARP, Andrews found himself pulled back to mental and “whole body” health.
“My goal in law school was to be a courtroom lawyer all the time. If you had told me in 1990 that I would be a practicing lawyer going to court every day, I would have laughed you out of this room. If you had told me in 2010 that I wouldn’t be an in-house lawyer every day … I would have laughed you out of this room,” he said. “Everybody thinks you’re going to go straight from A to B. Life doesn’t work A to B.”
Now, Andrews says, he has the “ability to serve the whole house.” He can help “the eight-year-old who’s struggling in middle school … the parent who’s trying to get that child through, but also caring for an older loved one … who might have some cognitive decline or mobility challenges.”
Building a pipeline of Black mental health professionals
In his role at APAF, Andrews has his sights set on increasing the number of psychiatrists nationwide by reducing barriers to study and success, particularly for practitioners of color, who are vastly underrepresented.
Only about 5% of physicians are Black, and the number for Black psychiatrists is even lower at just 2%, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Widespread stigma around mental illness in communities of color, combined with “systemic barriers that keep persons of color from getting into medical school and matching for residency with teaching hospitals after graduating,” have contributed to the low numbers, Andrews says.
Financial pressures, limited residency slots, and a lack of exposure to psychiatry as a viable career all play important roles in limiting Black representation in the field. At the same time, stigma surrounding mental health — especially in Black communities — can discourage both patients and future physicians, according to Andrews.
He explains that this stigma is rooted in underlying fear, shame, and historic discrimination, and the only way to deal with those issues is directly. If you break those down, Andrews said, you can actually address them.
There are signs of change, though. “In the digital world, more and more people are seeing and talking about mental health all the time,” Andrews said. “And I believe more and more young doctors of all colors are deciding, ‘we need more psychiatrists, and I want to be a part of that solution.’”
Not having enough psychiatrists of color has far-reaching consequences. If you are a “non-diverse” physician or a physician practicing without humility or cultural competency, you may over-diagnose or misdiagnose a patient, said Andrews. You might assume a patient has symptoms due to your own cognitive biases.
A 2024 study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine revealed that mistrust and suspicion were high among dozens of Black patients with serious mental illness, who said they felt doctors did not take their concerns seriously or took a condescending tone with them during appointments.
This type of treatment does not promote trust or disclosure, Andrews said. “What is my advantage to be vulnerable with people who don’t think much of me, because you already thought I was broken?”
To combat medical racism and bias, APAF runs one of the largest psychiatry pipeline programs in the world. It provides more than 1,000 medical students from underrepresented and marginalized communities with training and professional development. Programs like the Diversity Leadership Fellowship emphasize cultural competency and evidence-based practices to better serve diverse groups and at-risk populations.
These programs have had tangible success in producing leadership in the field of psychiatry: APA’s CEO Dr. Marketa Wills, the first CEO of color and first female CEO in the APA organization’s 180-year history, was a trainee with the APAF nearly three decades ago.
Despite efforts to make healthcare more equitable for patients of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community, many experts believe that racism and biases are more deeply ingrained in the system than many realize. For example, a 2019 study found that Black patients suffering from depression are often misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, and a 2016 study revealed that many doctors wrongly believe that Black patients have higher thresholds for pain tolerance.
“If you don’t have cultural humility or cultural competency, you could over-diagnose somebody because you’re looking for them to be ADHD, you’re looking for them to be bipolar, you’re looking for them to be schizophrenic,” said Andrews. “And then, because of the fears, the stigmas, the shame, people don’t want to go and get tested either.”
Youth mental health focus
Andrews says many fear that telling someone else about their struggles will cause that person to look down on them. That unwillingness to share about mental health challenges can start at a young age.
That’s why the APAF has partnered with local organizations in the Washington, D.C., area to help young people address mental health concerns. One of the programs, Our Minds Matter, operates in D.C.-area schools and other states to educate students on signs of emotional distress and how to address it. APAF also runs the Notice.Talk.Act. at School program, which helps train school staff to recognize and address student mental health issues and connect them to resources. The program was recently adopted at Jefferson Middle School Academy.
The program is “the ‘stop, drop and roll’ of mental health,” Andrews said. “How do I notice signs and symptoms of distress in a student? How do I create an open space to talk and be a better active listener with a student who wants to share their mental health concerns and then act?”
APAF’s program, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and free to schools, trained about 890 school staff members across the country in 2024, and boasts a 70% reduction in truancy and 89% reduction in disciplinary referrals, according to the foundation.
Notice.Talk.Act. is not just in schools — there are versions for home, for college, for the workplace.
Andrews hopes that this work with the APAF will reduce the stigma surrounding mental health struggles and improve access to culturally competent care. But he acknowledges there’s still a long way to go.
“We are planting and sowing seeds now and fertilizing the soil and tilling the soil,” he said. “We know that the next generation of doctors is going to look closer to the way the population looks. But ultimately, we still haven’t done enough.”
(This work is part of a partnership between the Washington Blade Foundation and Youthcast Media Group, funded through the FY26 Community Development Grant from the Office of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. Jebeh Pajibo is a senior at Bard High School Early College DC, one of Youthcast Media Group’s journalism class partners. Sarah Gandluri, a UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore, is an intern and former high school participant with YMG. YMG founder, former USA Today health policy reporter Jayne O’Donnell, contributed to this report.)
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
The ‘X’ returns to court
Police mental health struggles gain growing attention
Trump budget would codify expanded global gag rule
Man faces first S.C. ‘hate intimidation’ charge
Cuba under pressure and without answers
