Speaking at the scene of what became
known as “Bloody Sunday,” President Barack Obama invoked gay
rights as he remembered the 50th anniversary of the
Selma-to-Montgomery march.
The president told the crowd that while
racism persists, race relations have improved.
“What happened in Ferguson may not be
unique, but it's no longer endemic. It's no longer sanctioned by law
or custom, and before the civil rights movement, it most surely was,”
he
said.
Obama added that the marchers had
opened the doors of opportunity to other groups, including gays.
“Because of what they did, the doors
of opportunity swung open not just for African-Americans, but for
every American. Women marched through those doors. Latinos marched
through those doors. Asian-Americans, gay Americans, and Americans
with disabilities came through those doors. Their endeavors gave the
entire South the chance to rise again, not by reasserting the past,
but by transcending the past.”
“We do a disservice to the cause of
justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, or
that racial division is inherent to America,” he continued. “If
you think nothing's changed in the past 50 years, ask somebody who
lived through the Selma or Chicago or L.A. of the ’50s. Ask the
female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool
if nothing's changed. Ask your gay friend if it's easier to be out
and proud in America now than it was 30 years ago. To deny this
progress – our progress – would be to rob us of our own agency;
our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.”