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The above quotation - a reference to pivotal moments in the civil rights struggles of Americans was a part of President Obama's Second Inaugural Address.
It was a very historic speech.
While "Seneca Falls" and "Selma" pays tribute to the quest of freedom and equality for American women and African-Americans, for the first time in US history, a president has recognized the Gay rights movement in an inaugural address as a component of the quest towards equality. He also mentioned "our gay brothers and sisters."
I think today is a turning point for the LGBT community. The majority of Americans are now in favor of equal rights for LGBT Americans. Last November we saw the defeat in four states -Maine, Maryland, Washington, and Minnesota - of laws designed to prevent gay couples from legally marrying. In November we have also seen the first lesbian elected to the US Senate, and the largest number of gay representatives in Congress.
The tide had turned. Perhaps it had already turned a few years ago, but today the evidence is loud and clear: the movement for LGBT rights has taken it's place at the table of American politics and society.
During his first term, Pres. Obama successfully fought to overturn the discriminatory "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DOMA) policy in the military. Obama's people have been going over hundreds of government policies and protocols that have discriminated against LGBT people and changing them. Immigration and naturalization laws that were prejudiced against gay people have reformed. By voicing support for Marriage Equality we have seen more states legalizing same-sex marriage on the one hand and the numbers of Americans shifting according to the polls in favor of it.
No other president has done more for the LGBT community than Obama.
The above quotation - a reference to pivotal moments in the civil rights struggles of Americans was a part of President Obama's Second Inaugural Address.
It was a very historic speech.
While "Seneca Falls" and "Selma" pays tribute to the quest of freedom and equality for American women and African-Americans, for the first time in US history, a president has recognized the Gay rights movement in an inaugural address as a component of the quest towards equality. He also mentioned "our gay brothers and sisters."
I think today is a turning point for the LGBT community. The majority of Americans are now in favor of equal rights for LGBT Americans. Last November we saw the defeat in four states -Maine, Maryland, Washington, and Minnesota - of laws designed to prevent gay couples from legally marrying. In November we have also seen the first lesbian elected to the US Senate, and the largest number of gay representatives in Congress.
The tide had turned. Perhaps it had already turned a few years ago, but today the evidence is loud and clear: the movement for LGBT rights has taken it's place at the table of American politics and society.
I sat back in awe and goose bumps went across my skin listening with great pride.
Im sure a lot heterosexual Americans probably do not even understand to Stonewall is except over 45 New Yorkers.
What happen at the Stonewall Inn is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United States.
"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."
That moved me and his fight for equality for all will make him be remembered as a great President.
Last edited by SunnyKayak; 01-22-2013 at 09:10 AM..
I sat back in awe and goose bumps went across my skin listening with great pride.
Im sure a lot heterosexual Americans probably do not even understand to Stonewall is except over 45 New Yorkers.
What happen at the Stonewall Inn is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United States.
That moved me and his fight for equality for all will make him be remembered as a great President.
It does a gross disservice to the struggle of blacks to mention the struggle of gays in the same breath.
Btw, Obama could fart and it would give a liberal goosebumps.
It does a gross disservice to the struggle of blacks to mention the struggle of gays in the same breath.
Btw, Obama could fart and it would give a liberal goosebumps.
I have gut feeling you dont care what the point was in that part of speech.
He listed in chronological order from Women's rights, black rights to gay right in pursuit of equality.
Obama took a big risk with: “through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall” and explicitly linking women, African Americans and gays.
When Proposition 8 passed in California, some attributed the margin to African American church leaders who were angry at gay marriage being connected to the civil rights struggle. Obama himself was (or at least claimed to be) against gay marriage at the time.
All that is over with this speech. Gay marriage passed with the help of the African American voters (not to mention churches) in Maryland. That’s a tremendous change in only four years, and the work of a very skillful politician. He took on his own base and brought them around to support marriage equality.
His legacy, like Reagan, will be passing on his electoral coalition. Reagan combined the business lobby, Evangelicals, foreign policy hawks and was able to reach out to white, working-class men. These constituencies were not natural allies in 1980.
Obama combined African Americans, Latinos, youth, single women, white urban professional and the GLBT community. His line about Selma and Stonewall was about keeping this coalition together.
Only Obama can deliver such a full-throated defense of liberalism and equality and make it aspirational rather than hectoring.
No it wasn't. It may have historical references, but the speech itself was not historic. No one will remember this speech after today.
Simply put, Barack Obama is not the pivotal figure that his supporters hoped he would be. He'll merely fade into time and be one of the 44 Presidents, nowhere near as notable as Lincoln or Washington or Jefferson or FDR or Reagan. It's just not in the cards for him. He's not a natural born leader.
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