WATCH: President Obama Thanks LGBT Activists at Creating Change

The commander in chief issued a brief video address to the thousands of LGBT activists gathered in Atlanta this week for the 25th Annual National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.

BY Sunnivie Brydum

January 25 2013 7:27 PM ET

Fresh off his historically inclusive inaugural address, President Obama today issued a video address to LGBT activists gathered in Atlanta for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's 25th Annual National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.

In the brief video, posted to YouTube by the Task Force, Obama notes that real, lasting change doesn't begin in Washington.

"Change has always come from ordinary Americans who sit in or stand up or march to demand it," says the president. "The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has been a partner at the forefront of that movement for 40 years."

The president goes on to applaud LGBT activists for lobbying medical professionals to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness and for shining a light on the silent suffering of millions in the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

"I am more confident than ever that we will reach a better future," Obama concludes, "as long as Americans like you keep reaching for justice and all of us keep marching together."

Watch the entire address below.