President Barack Obama on Friday signed
a proclamation recognizing June as Gay Pride month.
Obama noted recent victories on the
marriage front but said that more needs to be done.
“This year, we celebrate LGBT Pride
Month at a moment of great hope and progress, recognizing that more
needs to be done,” Obama said. “Support for LGBT equality is
growing, led by a generation which understands that, in the words of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 'injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere.' In the past year, for the first time, voters in
multiple states affirmed marriage equality for same-sex couples.
State and local governments have taken important steps to provide
much-needed protections for transgender Americans.”
He added that he supports passage of
the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would prohibit
workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender
identity, and legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA), which prohibits the federal government from recognizing the
legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
“We have a long way to go, but if we
continue on this path together, I am confident that one day soon,
from coast to coast, all of our young people will look to the future
with the same sense of promise and possibility,” the president
added. (Read
the full proclamation.)
President Bill Clinton was the first
president to recognize Gay Pride month in 1999.