As Americans, it is our birthright that all people are created equal and deserve the same rights, privileges, and opportunities. Since our earliest days of independence, our Nation has striven to fulfill that promise. An important chapter in our great, unfinished story is the movement for fairness and equality on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This month, as we recognize the immeasurable contributions of LGBT Americans, we renew our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and to ending prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.
LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life. From business leaders and professors to athletes and first responders, LGBT individuals have achieved success and prominence in every discipline. They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors. Across my Administration, openly LGBT employees are serving at every level. Thanks to those who came before us the brave men and women who marched, stood up to injustice, and brought change through acts of compassion or defiance we have made enormous progress and continue to strive for a more perfect union.
My Administration has advanced our journey by signing into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which strengthens Federal protections against crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation. We renewed the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides life saving medical services and support to Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and finally eliminated the HIV entry ban. I also signed a Presidential Memorandum directing hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds to give LGBT patients the compassion and security they deserve in their time of need, including the ability to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions.
In other areas, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a series of proposals to ensure core housing programs are open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. HUD also announced the first ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has created a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders.
Much work remains to fulfill our Nation's promise of equal justice under law for LGBT Americans. That is why we must give committed gay couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple, and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. We must protect the rights of LGBT families by securing their adoption rights, ending employment discrimination against LGBT Americans, and ensuring Federal employees receive equal benefits. We must create safer schools so all our children may learn in a supportive environment. I am also committed to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so patriotic LGBT Americans can serve openly in our military, and I am working with the Congress and our military leadership to accomplish that goal.
As we honor the LGBT Americans who have given so much to our Nation, let us remember that if one of us is unable to realize full equality, we all fall short of our founding principles. Our Nation draws its strength from our diversity, with each of us contributing to the greater whole. By affirming these rights and values, each American benefits from the further advancement of liberty and justice for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
GO HERE to see the official White House proclamation.
24 comments:
Something else that needs to be repealed when Americans get back in charge of the government.
WTF!
Let me guess Joe, you're against Black History month too?
anonymous 9:24 and others I have rejected. Don't shoot the messanger. Just because I publish the news the MSM is too afraid to touch doesn't make me the bad guy.
Where's Ronald Reagan when this country needs a real man!
What a disgrace! Our children have enough dysfunction in their lives today w/out LGBT screwing up their lives and creating stress and ridicule for them in schools and in the community. Does anyone ever think of the rights of the children outweighing the rights of these freaks?? According to the Bible, a marriage is the union between a man and a woman! If you are gay you should not be able to get married! I attended a service at Allen Memorial Baptist Church in Salisbury where Pastor William Warren said homosexuality was a sin. This is the word of God! I believe some people cannot help it and others choose this lifestyle but either way the Bible says they are going to hell. Anyone who mocks God be being a transvestite or transexual is making a statement it was not good enough what God gave them so they want to change it! I think our President needs to be more worried about protecting our elderly and veterans who have made far more valuable contributions to society besides talk shows and home decorating shows. He also needs to be more concerned about our economy, the war on terror, and securing our borders! WTF is wrong w/our country?? We have become a nation of freaks w/the philosophy of if it feels good, do it! No morals anymore, just take a walk through the mall or the boardwalk! We're in real trouble w/this man as our leader! Priorities all wrong! All the signs are here folks, the world is approaching the end. Many old folks will tell you.
Well I guess the rumors are true, your pres is a closet homo!!
10:06, you're a Baptist. That's your first problem. You people are the biggest hypocritical, judgmental alleged "Christians" out there. You're quick to point a finger and tell people, "You're going to HEELLLLL!" Gay people don't choose their lifestyle anymore than you choose to be an idiot. As for people in the mall or on the boardwalk- were you born yesterday? I've seen that going on for a couple of decades now. Why don't you go approach those people and tell them they're going to HEEELLLLL?! Remember, Jesus loves!
Unfortunately I think there is a lot of truth to 10:06 PM's comments...
@ 9:24.....I completely support equal rights for all legal citizens in this great country. All black history month, bet, etc. does is further separate our nation. Where's white history month or wet? Or for that matter Asian history month? What does that even have to do with what Jo posted???
Don't ask, don't tell needs to be repealed (and any ban on serving because of being LGBT).
We should allow civil unions of gay couples as well, why shouldn't gays be as miserable as the rest of us? Seriously, with all the divorces in the world, what's wrong if 2 men or 2 women want to get hitched? On the federal level straight or gay marriages should be called civil unions, leave it up to your religion (or lack thereof) to call it a marriage so as not to offend anyone.
Seems rather simple in year 2010, but bigots still exist.
And before you judge me, I'm straight, redneck and republican. Just seems like nonsense to me. If a gay wants to go fight for his country let him, I ain't going over there to get shot. It's not like being gay is contagious. If I was in the miliatary I'd be more worried about some religious nut trying to kill me than a gay person raping me in my sleep.
This is getting old. Why not just give the people the same rights as everyone. I mean what right do we have to tell them who they can love and who they can’t. Ya I think the freaks and sick people but I don’t lose any sleep at night over it. This is like telling black and white people 30 years ago that they can’t get married because they are not of the same race. That is stupid and racist and none of use including the government should any right to tell people who they can love and marry. Religious dogma has no place in government or in the lives of people who don’t believe in it. Leave them alone and let them do what they want.
i wish all of them went back into the closet
You people are so incredibly ignorant.
Just trying to get every vote the idiot can. By the way ,I don't like black history month FYI 9:24.
Several years ago I was in the Giant grocery store on a Sunday morning and when I was in the line waiting to be checked out, there was this very tall "woman" with big hands and "low" voice in front of me dressed to the nines in a red suit! Something seemed odd about this "woman", come to find out he/she was a man from Salisbury and was told later he/she is someone well known! It blew me away to wonder why a person wants to dress this way (man dressed up in women's clothes) Am I missing something?
women have been dressing in mens clothes for years. While I agree, seeing a man in a dress is clearly a LOOK AT MEEEE thing but even the former Zoo Director Jim Rapp loved dressing up as a woman.
a fair doctrine
Just another step closer into the belly of the beast.
For those who follow the "if it feels good, do it" doctrine, you are sadly going to be repeating history.
Remember...
Hate the sin....not the sinner.
Gay Lifestyle? It sounds like they have made a choice.
Homosexuality is a behavior disorder.
It can be taught just like drinking alcohol excessively or smoking tobacco.
8:27 your behaviour disorder is stupidity and there is no cure for it.
Alex,
your comment is lacking grounds. You are responding to my comment? Is my comment a behavior or an opinion?
Homosexuality is a behavior disorder.
Bad behavior, un-natural, immoral, lacking in meaning or purpose except to satisfy some carnal desire for pleasure.
These are not the behaviors of a moral decent human being. The anus has a purpose as does the penis. Their purposes are not congruent.
If my opinion sounds stupid or uninformed, then so be it. However, you indicated my behavior is stupid.
Do you mean the act of typing?
If so, well then, what's good for the goose is also good for the . . . goose? Ugh
9:27 what right do you have to determine whether or not someone is a decent human being based on their sexual preference. I guess the bible says it's bad.
You cannot argue any issues without the 3 Gs - God, Guns, and Gays.
That's what makes YOU uniformed and you unwillingness to become informed makes you stupid.
Leviticus is the book of the Bible that discusses homosexuality....BUT lets be realistic people....at the time the Bible was written,women were treated just a little bit better than livestock,and slavery of so-called "lesser" races was rampant.I believe that Jesus died for my sins and I would never mock the Bible but it WAS written a very long time ago too.
All you "Christians" spouting hellfire and brimstone,ask yourself that old question,what would Jesus do?He may not approve of the homosexual or the drunkard or the aldulteress but he loves them all the same...
To all of you out there who like to act like gay people are immigrants from outer space, we all know that the Short has more gay people than its share, such that one wonders what is in the water. Like most people of colonial stock, I am related to myself six different ways and have long suspected that our notorious endogamy as a micro-culture generates homosexuals. Has it occurred to you that tribes with extra adults might be a successful trait? Of course not, you're idiotic Creationists.
But here's what I really wanted to say. My grandfather was a cantankerous old Eastern Shoreman, one of the most colorful and his brother was gay. My grandfather would have told you people, especially the Baptists, to mind your own business. MYOB is the unofficial motto of the Eastern Shore, is it not?
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