Posted on 06/01/2010 1:32:44 PM PDT by TaraP
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
I think you may have a legitimate thing there.
It almost looks like he’s going off the deep end both mentally and physically.
Will it also prosecute homosexual offenders who kidnap, rape, and murder heterosexuals?
It is also be used to prosecute minorities who kidnap, rape, torture, and murder white people under the guise of it being a "carjacking gone wrong"?
Ugly acts know no skin color or sexual preference.
Prosecutors and the media selectively cover such horrors for political reasons.
Everything you mention is pushed for by Sex Positive Agenda advocates. NO moral judgements over ANY sexual pairings regardless of sex, age, relation, marital status, number, or species of partner(s).
Sheep and goats, sheep and goats.
If we are going to permit immigrants to come into this country with HIV then we should lift the ban on persons infected with ANY communicable disease.
It becomes an unconstitutional act of discrimination.
Considering that my granddaughter, who was just delightful when she stayed at Grandpa's house this weekend, rides a "short bus", you failed.
(If you didn't know she was a very short 5 y/o(just), you'd not think she should be on the short bus. She's ahead in some areas, but a bit behind in some critcal ones.)
Is it me or does anyone else see a rainbow during an oil spill?
Even my granddaughter, who rides the short bus, and is quite proud of doing so, knows the difference between boys and girls, men and women. She's still working on getting the pronouns correct, though.
But proud to do this one in person.
What a nasty, perverted man. Next up: National Communism Month.
That was on our agency home page when I logged on this morning.
So... why aren’t we going to have a potluck? Every month we seem to have some sort of potluck gathering for every other special interest group, why aren’t we having one for “Appreciate the Otherly Gendered” month?
I could bring petit fours. Or rainbow sherbert.
If homosexuality concerns the acts of consenting adults in private, then when does a CHILD get to consent to being adopted by 2 persons of the same sex or a transexual or transvestite?
Uh Oh Im starting to tingle
I said I did not mean this as offensive....Meaning your grand-daughter has every right to ride the Short-Bus, but Obama rides it with no other disability than the poison he ascribes too.
“I thought June was Bridal Month.”
That is a great point, actually. Not coincedence I think.
If only teachers could marry maybe they would stop molesting children and reading the Safe School Czar's coursework on fisting and how "great" it is to be molested by an adult of the same sex.
They have sex. It’s an accomplishment. Okay, oysters have sex too. When’s Oyster Pride Month?
No coincidence either in the month that the Supreme Court handed down the “Lawrence v. Texas” decision.
couldn’t give a speech to respectfully acknowledge the sacrifice of our fallen heroes due to some rain... yet he has no problem pulling this gem off.
quality.
Whoa! Ryan White was not “living with AIDS”. His scumbag dentist infected him with it!
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