In his State of the Union address President Obama continued his acknowledgement and support of the LGBT community by using the words bisexual and transgender in his address to America. Obama is the first to use the words in one of the key speeches that each president gives each year. President Obama said “As Americans, we respect human dignity…That’s why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.”
“It continues Obama’s legacy as the President that has fundamentally changed the lives of the LGBT community in America. Obama is to the LGBT community what President Truman was to the African American community, a leader that is on the right side of history with respect to equal rights, ” said Stampp Corbin, former Co-Chair of the Obama National LGBT Leadership Council.
President Obama mentioned LGBT people two other times in his address, he said “I’ve seen something like gay marriage go from a wedge issue used to drive us apart to a story of freedom across our country, a civil right now legal in states that seven in ten Americans call home.”
Obama also said “I want future generations to know that we are a people who see our differences as a great gift, that we are a people who value the dignity and worth of every citizen — man and woman, young and old, black and white, Latino and Asian, immigrant and Native American, gay and straight, Americans with mental illness or physical disability.”
