In honor of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, President Obama this weekend vowed to “keep fighting, for however long it takes, until we are all able to live free and equal in dignity and rights.”
The president, who just last month called for an end to “conversion” therapy for gay youth, proclaimed in a statement that “LGBT rights are human rights.”
Since taking office, Obama has consistently advocated equal rights for LGBT people worldwide. In 2010, he signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. military’s policy forbidding openly gay men and women from serving. In 2011, he signed an official memorandum directing agencies to combat criminalization of gays abroad.
In a watershed moment, Obama formally endorsed gay marriage in an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts in 2012, just a few days after Vice President Joe Biden preempted him. Then, in 2014, he signed an executive order to protect transgendered federal employees from workplace discrimination, and earlier this year, he became the first president to call for protections for “transgender” individuals in the State of the Union address.
Credit to ABC News
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