Michelle Obama
states her case for why an Obama presidency would make for
an LGBT-friendlier America.
In about a month,
Americans will head to the polls to cast their votes
for the next president of the United States. It will be a
momentous day. But this presidential election has
already changed our country in profound ways. The
candidacies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have
smashed old barriers and broadened opportunities for all
Americans. And I’m grateful to them -- both as
a citizen and as a parent of two young girls.
But our
country’s journey toward equality is not finished.
It’s been five years since Lawrence v. Texas.
It’s been 39 years since Stonewall. And we
still have more work to do before we achieve equality for
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans.
Election Day
offers an opportunity to take another crucial step toward
equality. Millions have joined this movement for change.
People are hoping again -- believing again -- that we
can come together to create a stronger, fairer nation.
And on November 4 we’ll have a chance to put
that hope into action.
Translating hope
into action is something Barack has done for his entire
career.
Barack and I met
in Chicago 20 years ago. He thought the best way for me
to know him was to get a sense of the work he cared about
most. After college he had worked in neighborhoods
that were devastated when steel plants shut down and
jobs dried up. He’d been invited back to speak to
people from those neighborhoods about how to create new
opportunities for their families. He asked me to come
with him.
I watched as
Barack took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and
instantly connected with every person in that room. He gave
the most eloquent talk about “the world as it
is” and “the world as it should be.”
Too often, he
said, we accept the distance between the two, and we settle
for the world as it is -- even when it doesn’t
reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us
that we know what fairness and justice and opportunity
look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves and
find the strength to strive for the world as it should be.
Barack Obama, the
2008 presidential nominee, is the same man I fell in
love with on that day 20 years ago. He has never stopped
pursuing that better world.
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