President Barack Obama made history Tuesday night by acknowledging and mentioning lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in his State of the Union address.
It was an exciting evening, and an historic evening, as President Barack Obama delivered a rousing, optimistic, and feisty State of the Union address. While all the world is talking about his unscripted slam of Republicans, who cheered when he announced he has no more campaigns to run (“I know, because I won both of them” was his quick retort,) more important was the President’s acknowledgment of lesbian, bisexual and transgender people for the first time ever in a State of the Union address.
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“As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened, which is why I’ve prohibited torture, and worked to make sure our use of new technology like drones is properly constrained,” the President told Congress. “It’s why we speak out against the deplorable anti-Semitism that has resurfaced in certain parts of the world. It’s why we continue to reject offensive stereotypes of Muslims – the vast majority of whom share our commitment to peace. That’s why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. We do these things not only because they’re right, but because they make us safer.” Â
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“I listened to the State of the Union with bated breath. President Obama’s public recognition of transgender people in his State of the Union address was historic,” Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center in California, told The Huffington Post. “It is time for the American public to become aware of our stories and struggles both at home and around the globe.”
Twitter certainly noticed too:
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Image: Screenshot via YouTube