Obama declares June as LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH

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LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

__________________________________________________ _________
For Immediate Release June 1, 2009

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

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

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Gay Pride Party at US Embassy in Baghdad
For One Night, Baghdad Gets a Pink Zone

Quote:

Change has certainly come to Baghdad. And it appears that includes the U.S. Embassy, where they are holding what the invitation says is the first-ever U.S. Embassy Gay Pride Theme Party next Friday at Baghdaddy's, which is the embassy employee association's pub.

"Come celebrate the start of Summer with color . . . and in costume!" the May 10 invitation says. "Dress in drag or as a gay icon. All are welcome." The invitation was attached to what was called an "All Hands Alerts" e-mail.

An embassy spokesman said by way of explanation: "This is an event organized and sponsored by a group of employees. Given the lack of places to meet in Baghdad, the embassy allows groups to use its social facilities for events on a first-come, first-served basis."

The invitation says, "Prizes will be awarded for two contests: Best Dressed Gay Icon and Best Lip Synch Performance." Unclear what the prizes are, but don't forget to "order costume supplies now in time for May 29th," we're told. "For more info and costume ideas, check out the next edition of The Tigris Times."

[Toad]

Oh, sweet Jeezez. Stop the bus, I want off.



I demand August 2009 be "Straight Dudes who like Hot Chicks in Bikini's Pride Month".

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The White House

Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________

For Immediate Release May 28, 2010

Presidential Proclamation--Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month

As Americans, it is our birthright that all people are created equal and deserve the same rights, privileges, and opportunities. Since our earliest days of independence, our Nation has striven to fulfill that promise. An important chapter in our great, unfinished story is the movement for fairness and equality on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This month, as we recognize the immeasurable contributions of LGBT Americans, we renew our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and to ending prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.

LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life. From business leaders and professors to athletes and first responders, LGBT individuals have achieved success and prominence in every discipline. They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors. Across my Administration, openly LGBT employees are serving at every level. Thanks to those who came before us the brave men and women who marched, stood up to injustice, and brought change through acts of compassion or defiance we have made enormous progress and continue to strive for a more perfect union.

My Administration has advanced our journey by signing into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which strengthens Federal protections against crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation. We renewed the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides life saving medical services and support to Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and finally eliminated the HIV entry ban. I also signed a Presidential Memorandum directing hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds to give LGBT patients the compassion and security they deserve in their time of need, including the ability to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions.

In other areas, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a series of proposals to ensure core housing programs are open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. HUD also announced the first ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has created a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders.

Much work remains to fulfill our Nation's promise of equal justice under law for LGBT Americans. That is why we must give committed gay couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple, and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. We must protect the rights of LGBT families by securing their adoption rights, ending employment discrimination against LGBT Americans, and ensuring Federal employees receive equal benefits. We must create safer schools so all our children may learn in a supportive environment. I am also committed to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so patriotic LGBT Americans can serve openly in our military, and I am working with the Congress and our military leadership to accomplish that goal.

As we honor the LGBT Americans who have given so much to our Nation, let us remember that if one of us is unable to realize full equality, we all fall short of our founding principles. Our Nation draws its strength from our diversity, with each of us contributing to the greater whole. By affirming these rights and values, each American benefits from the further advancement of liberty and justice for all.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

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Third-Graders Introduce Obama at LGBT Pride Event

Nine year-old twins Zea and Luna introduce President Barack Obama at the White House's LGBT Pride Month celebration Thursday, June 13.

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Obama's LGBT Executive Order endangers religious liberty

By Todd Starnes
Published July 21, 2014FoxNews.com

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July 21, 2014: Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, left, applauds as President Obama waves after signing an executive order to protect LGBT employees from federal workplace discrimination in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Obama's executive order prohibits discrimination against gay and transgender workers in the federal government and its contracting agencies, without a new exemption that was requested by some religious organizations.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

President Obama signed an executive order Monday barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity – ignoring the pleas of Christian and other faith leaders to include an exemption for religious organizations.

“Thanks to your passion and advocacy and the irrefutable rightness of your cause, our government – the government of the people, by the people and for the people – will become just a little bit fairer,” the president told a gathering in the White House.

The executive order would prevent Christian and other religious organizations with federal contracts from requiring workers to adhere to the tenets of their religious beliefs. Christianity Today reports the order could impact religious non-profits such as World Vision, World Relief and Catholic Charities.

This administration believes gay rights trump everyone else’s rights – including religious rights.

“If religious organizations cannot require that their employees conduct themselves in ways consistent with the teachings of their faith – then, essentially, those organizations are unable to operate in accordance with their faith,” Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, told me.

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He said the president’s order forces employers to put aside their principles in the name of political correctness. “This level of coercion is nothing less than viewpoint blackmail that bullies into silence every contractor and subcontractor who has moral objections to homosexual behavior,” Sprigg said.

“The mask is coming off of the homosexual movement’s agenda. They really do not believe in religious liberty. They want forced affirmation of homosexual and transgender conduct to trump every other consideration in the workplace – including religious liberty.”

A group of prominent religious leaders, including Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor at Saddleback Church, wrote a letter to President Obama urging him to include a religious exemption.

“In a concrete way, religious organizations will lose financial funding that allows them to serve others in the national interest due to their organizational identity,” they wrote. “When the capacity of religious organizations is limited, the common good suffers.”

Not surprising, the president’s executive order was warmly welcomed by left-wing organizations like Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“Religious groups have no right to accept taxpayer money and engage in rank forms of discrimination,” said executive director Barry Lynn. “Faith-based groups that tap the public purse should play by the same rules as everyone else and not expect special treatment.”

But that’s really not the point. This is about the federal government bullying religious groups that hold viewpoints it deems inappropriate.

As I wrote in my new book, “God Less America,” this administration believes gay rights trump everyone else’s rights – including religious rights.

Vice President Joe Biden went so far as to declare as much during a speech to international gay rights activists.

“I don’t care what your culture is,” he said in remarks covered by Associated Press. “Inhumanity is inhumanity. Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice.”

That explains why a Christian baker in Colorado was ordered by a state commission to undergo re-education training after he declined to participate in a gay wedding celebration.

That explains why a Christian photographer in New Mexico was found guilty of discrimination for refusing to photograph a gay wedding ceremony.

That explains why Democratic lawmakers in multiple states tried to shut down Chick-fil-A because of the owner’s privately held beliefs about traditional marriage.

And I as detail in “God Less America,” that explains why Billy Graham – “America’s pastor” – was subjected to an Internal Revenue Service audit after he supported a traditional marriage amendment in North Carolina.

The Obama administration and its militant cronies want to tell Christians whom to hire, how to run their business and how to think.

And now the president has decreed that any religious group that holds viewpoints divergent from the LGBT agenda is not worthy of federal tax dollars.

Last month, National Security Adviser Susan Rice told a gathering at the White House Forum on Global LGBT Human Rights that it was their responsibility to sway theological thinking on the LGBT issue.

“For the faith community, how can we reinforce to religious groups that God loves all the children of his creation equally?” she asked the crowd.

“Change will come,” she went on to say. “It’s already coming.”

Indeed, it has. And it appears the president has decided to “reinforce” the government’s theology on Christians by using his pen and phone.

And woe be to any Christian American who refuses to comply.

Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies at Boyce College, the undergraduate arm of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. addressed the issues at hand in an essay titled, “Are Christian Colleges Free to
be Christian?”

“There are people who are willing to use whatever means necessary to force religious institutions to conform to the new sexual morality,” he wrote. “Any individual or institution that refuses to comply will have to face the consequences.”

So what is the next logical step in the government’s systematic effort to marginalize Christianity? Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, suggests to me that churches might want to play close attention to their tax-exempt status.

“The problem with this executive order is that it paves the way for the next one – which could withhold the tax-exempt status or broadcast licenses for religious organizations holding biblical beliefs with which the administration disagrees,” Jeffress told me.

The Obama administration seems hell-bent on forcing Christians to assimilate to the militant LGBT agenda. Resistance is futile.

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Obama to Appoint LGBT Special Envoy, Must Be Gay to Apply

February 11, 2015 by Steve Berman



This is so expected. First, the “gay pride” flag was flown over the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. Then it was Israel’s turn to hoist the rainbow ensign over the embassy in Tel Aviv. Now, Secretary of State John Kerry will appoint an LGBT special envoy.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said US Secretary of State John Kerry would “soon” make the appointment.

“It will be an openly gay foreign service officer. We don’t have a finalized name yet. But we will announce soon,” Harf said.

Resume qualifications for this position: be openly gay. It’s not like there’s any discrimination going on here. There’s no irony at all that the State Department will require a particular gender preference combination for a job, but if a job posting ever said “heteronormative pale penis people only”, a hurricane of Title VII lawsuits would proceed from the liberal camp. Maybe Jesse Ventura or Chuck Norris should apply for the position, and when denied on the basis of “not being gay”, hit State with a discrimination lawsuit.

When The Times of Israel asked Ms. Harf* what, specifically, an LGBT envoy would do, in relation to, say, the same-sex marriage referendum on the ballot for Valentine’s Day in Slovakia, she delivered this non-sequitur: “The US doesn’t take a position on the issue of same-sex marriage in other countries.” I’d laugh if my palm wasn’t over my face.

Message to the world from the Obama administration: burn, kill, and behead your enemies all you like; oppress the weak, take their land and displace them; steal and pillage with impunity. But don’t mess with gay rights or climate change, because those are our President’s strategic imperatives.

*Marie Harf is Jen Psaki’s assistant at State, a woman who Rush Limbaugh called “indescribable”. Quoting Rush:

This woman is Julia from that ad that they ran in the 2012 campaign. I mean, this woman has been, from the moment of birth, she has been saturated in modern-day progressivism, leftism. It just reeks, it’s so obvious. And part and parcel of that means that she had no idea what she’s doing, but thinks that she’s the smartest person in the room.

http://www.sgberman.com/2015/02/11/k...ust-gay-apply/

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Obama Designates Gay Bar As Latest National Monument

by Charlie Spiering 24 Jun 2016



President Barack Obama announced his decision to designate the site of the Stonewall Uprising for gay rights in New York City as a national monument.

The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar that was raided by the New York City police department to enforce a law making it illegal to sell alcoholic drinks to homosexuals.

Gay Americans rioted in response, organizing activists and rallies across the country in support of gay rights in America.

In a YouTube video, Obama recalled the 1969 riots, praising the gay rights activists that reacted to the Stonewall arrests.

“Stonewall will be our first national monument to tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights,” Obama said. “I believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country — the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us. That we are stronger together, that out of many we are one.”


https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=ywtvJyXDWkk

According to the White House, the national park will include the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park across the street; about 7.7 acres of land.

In his statement, Obama recognized Christopher Park as a gathering place for the LGBT community, recalling that there were celebrations and weddings there after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015.

He also referred to those who mourned at the park after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando earlier this month.

“LGBT people and their supporters in New York headed again to Christopher Park to mourn, heal, and stand together in unity for the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country,” he said.

Obama also recalled the persecution that gay Americans suffered under the law before homosexuality became widely accepted.

“In some States, adults of the same sex caught having consensual sex in their own home could receive sentences of up to life in prison or be confined to a mental institution, where they faced horrific procedures, such as shock therapy, castration, and lobotomies,” he said.

Obama celebrated the progress America had made regarding LGBT Americans, but admitted that there was more that the country could do.

“There is important distance yet to travel, but through political engagement and litigation, as well as individual acts of courage and acceptance, this movement has made tremendous progress toward securing equal rights and equal dignity,” he wrote.