(Community Matters) Just announced: President Obama will be the keynote speaker at the LGBT Leadership Council Dinner on June 23 launching New York’s pride celebration. The evening will feature many of our community’s heroes from around the country. Join us.
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Like one of his heroes (Abraham Lincoln), Pres Obama will be remembered for his courage in further realizing the maxim “all men are created equal.” Pres Obama promised to fight for our equality, and during his first two years, we’ve made greater legislative progress than in all previous years combined. Not only did we gain hate crime protections and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but the Dept of Justice has declared DOMA unconstitutional, the State Dept provides greater gender identity equality and rescinded the HIV travel ban, HUD has introduced LGBT nondiscrimination regulations, Health & Human Services requires hospitals recognize same sex directives and visitation privileges, and many other advances. President Obama is helping us lead many Americans in their evolution toward support for same sex marriage. Combined with strong, relentless advocacy from our community for full equality, the President is helping us get there more quickly than most imagined, albeit not fast enough for any.
I’m honored to be a co-chair along with my colleagues from around the country: Andy Tobias (NY), Terry Bean (Portland), Elizabeth Birch (DC), Wally Brewster & Bob Satawake (Chicago), Paul Horning (Atlanta), Barry Karas & Dana Pearlman (LA), Charles Myers (NY), Kathy Levinson (Silicon Valley) and Laura Rickett (Chicago).
Community Matters 
