Obama’s Legacy for LGBTQ Families
As President Barack Obama ends eight years in office, let’s reflect on what he and his administration have done to advance understanding of and equality for LGBTQ parents and our children.
As President Barack Obama ends eight years in office, let’s reflect on what he and his administration have done to advance understanding of and equality for LGBTQ parents and our children.
Let’s head into the weekend with some wise words from President Barack Obama at the White House LGBT Pride Reception.
Two gay dads and their kids played a small but significant role in the evolution of President Obama and his administration on marriage equality.
It’s National Family Week. The President said so. And for the first time ever, he explicitly included same-sex parents in his proclamation. That’s great news — but he could do more.
What a night. A president who supports LGBT equality and the right of women to control their own bodies. The first time voters have affirmed marriage equality at the ballot box—in Maryland, Maine, and Washington—and defeated an attempt to ban it—in Minnesota. Our first openly LGBT U.S. Senator, Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Openly gay representatives Jared Polis (D-CO) and David Cicilline (D-RI) re-elected, joined by newcomers Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) and Mark Pocan (D-WI)—a record number of out members of Congress. A record number of women in the Senate. I had dared not dream of so many wins.
And yet.
When President Obama first announced his support for marriage equality yesterday, he mentioned that his new view was motivated in part by same-sex couples who are raising kids together. In a campaign e-mail later yesterday evening, he said again that he was influenced by the children same-sex parents. His daughters have friends with same-sex parents, he added, and the girls assume that their families should be treated equally:
BREAKING NEWS: President Barack Obama, in an interview with ABC News this afternoon, announced, “I’ve just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
Small holiday that it is, Family Day 2010 slipped by yesterday without much notice. President Obama nevertheless issued a proclamation about it as he did last year. This year’s proclamation, however, omits last year’s mention of different family structures, including children being raised by same-sex couples. Compare (in part): 2009 [my emphasis]: Our family provides
Today is Loving Day, a commemoration of the Loving vs. Virginia U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage, and a day that “fights racial prejudice through education and builds multicultural community.” TIME has a good article with more on the case and its impact, and notes we now have a president who is himself
From the President’s Mother’s Day proclamation (my bold): Whether adoptive, biological, or foster, mothers share an unbreakable bond with their children, and Americans of all ages and backgrounds owe them an immeasurable debt. Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by two parents, a single mother, two mothers, a step-mom, a