This is a must-watch video. It’s another reminder of just how important the upcoming presidential election is for the cause of LGBT civil rights, and the leaps and bounds by which that cause has moved forward during President Obama’s first term.
I was particularly touched when Zachary Quinto, Wanda Sykes, George Takei, Billie Jean King, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson recounted their reactions to President Obama’s historic announcement that he supports marriage equality. That day, May 9, 2012, anticipation was building online and among LGBT activists that the President’s “special announcement” might have something to do with the freedom to marry. By the time his interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts came on, I was fairly certain — based on all the chatter but also on a simple hunch — that President Obama was going to formally complete his “evolution” on the issue. But even with that relative certainty, the surge of emotion I felt on hearing him actually say those words absolutely overwhelmed me. I literally cannot overstate the impact it had, and still has — as a person who was initially compelled into LGBT activism just months after my wedding because my home state of Wisconsin used its constitution to attack my marriage — to hear the president of the United States say that he respects and values relationships, marriages, and families like mine on an equal footing with his own. It represented an incredible leap forward in the struggle for LGBT equality, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt prouder to be an American than I did on that day. Like Wanda, George, and I’m sure many of you, I called my husband Michael at work and we wept together.
Check the video out below. As you can see, I found it very moving; I’m interested to hear if TWO readers react similarly. Let us know: was there something that particularly touched you?
On November 6, vote like your rights depend on it. Because they do.
