President Barack Obama reiterated his
support for LGBT rights during Tuesday's State of the Union address.
Obama told the nation that Americans
respect human dignity because it's the right thing to do and it makes
us safer.
“As Americans, we respect human
dignity, even when we're threatened, which is why I've prohibited
torture, and worked to make sure our use of new technology like
drones is properly constrained,” he said. “It's why we speak out
against the deplorable anti-Semitism that has resurfaced in certain
parts of the world. It's why we continue to reject offensive
stereotypes of Muslims – the vast majority of whom share our
commitment to peace. That's why we defend free speech, and advocate
for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or
religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or
transgender. We do these things not only because they're right, but
because they make us safer.”
The president also reiterated his
support for marriage equality, just days after the Supreme Court
agreed to settle the issue nationally.
“I still believe that we are one
people. I still believe that together, we can do great things, even
when the odds are long. I believe this because over and over in my
six years in office, I have seen America at its best. I've seen the
hopeful faces of young graduates from New York to California; and our
newest officers at West Point, Annapolis, Colorado Springs and New
London. I've mourned with grieving families in Tucson and Newtown;
in Boston, West Texas, and West Virginia. I've watched Americans
beat back adversity from the Gulf Coast to the Great Plains; from
Midwest assembly lines to the mid-Atlantic seaboard. I've seen
something like gay marriage go from a wedge issue used to drive us
apart to a story of freedom across our country, a civil right now
legal in states that seven in ten Americans call home.”
“So I know the good, and optimistic,
and big-hearted generosity of the American people who, every day,
live the idea that we are our brother's keeper, and our sister's
keeper. And I know they expect those of us who serve here to set a
better example.”
Obama first endorsed marriage equality
in a 2012 interview with ABC's Robin Roberts.
(Related: Obama
admin to urge Supreme Court to strike down gay marriage bans
nationwide.)