The Stonewall Inn

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.

LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country’s response to the HIV pandemic.

Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration — in both the White House and the Federal agencies — openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.

The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.

My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.

These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

Barack Obama

Some time ago the APSU Gay-Straight Alliance decided to attend this conference, which has affectionately become known as the alphabet soup people conference, or somewhat more quickly as the big gay conference.

So, at 2 a.m.  in the morning on Saturday, I find myself reflecting on the first day of the conference, or really the first evening. I remember my first distinct impression after our six hour or so drive to lovely but somewhat frigid Bloomington, Indiana was “Sacre merde. This place is (expletive) huge.”

MBLGTACC logo

Indeed, it took as a good 30 minutes after finding a parking spot to figure out where on the campus we needed to get to for registration. Of course, the lack of directional signs on campus was hardly surprising, as we’d already learned of the Indianan aversion to street signs. Thankfully, the Indiana Memorial Union is pretty hard to miss, as the Union is a huge, multi-story building that puts AP’s Morgan Center to absolute shame. The building single-handedly has a greater accommodation capacity than ALL of the AP dorms combined. Of course, after that it was off to another big building, the auditorium. Of course, with the clue of the size of the IU Memorial, the scope of the auditorium became somewhat less impressive, though any school with the resources to build an auditorium building wherein one theatre holds 1 500 people with seats left over is still impressive.

Of course, the real point of the conference is what was going on INSIDE these impressive buildings. Mr. Kand McQueen, a transgendered man, was already in full swing by the time us country bumpkins managed to figure out where the hell we were. Fortunately, one was quickly able to grasp the point of his presentation. Mr. McQueen spoke of the gender/sex dichotomy that has become so deeply entrenched within our society. Certainly, Mr. McQueen recognizes that categorization can’t be avoided (throwing in some Ayn Rand here, categorization is one of the functions of our rational intellect that lets us deal with the world in a meaningful way). And the male/female categorization has and will continue to serve us well, but he argues we must be aware of this false dichotomy. Or, more Rand, when confronted with information that fails to fit our paradigm we should question the paradigm we’ve constructed, not the information we’ve gathered. Further, Mr. McQueen makes a convincing point that this is an issue for every part of that MBLGTA group.

Of course, after such serious fare, the entertainment for the night, while keeping a point, was delightedly politically incorrect and funny. OutMedia’s Queer Riot quartet put on a really quite amusing performance, although Vidur Kapur’s politically incorrect digs about rural Tennessee in general and Clarksville specifically (hah! He thinks Clarksville is rural?) probably should have been insulting (though accurate). The highlight would have to qualify as the closing act, a really amusing song about gay marriage, possibly entitled “I Want to Civil Union You.” While humorous, the song serves to highlight the inadequacy of the separate but equal doctrine of civil rights.

Thus, it seemed the conference was off to a good start, so cut to about an hour later at 1:15 or so when our little group is clustered in the Hilton waiting for our pizza and perusing the conference options on workshops for the next day. The fare for that is delightfully varied, ranging from transgendered film seminars to how-to sessions for BDSM. None of our delegation chose to go to the latter, sorry to disappoint oh kinky readers, instead opting for some of the more serious fare. This writer personally plans on attending a lecture on the impact of hate and a student organization round-table before noon.

So, in short, despite 1,500 college aged homosexuals descending in mass on the mid-western town, things look to be off to a promising, if sleep-deprived start. Look forward to further conference commentary as we experience it.