President Obama celebrates Pride month

As millions of Americans across the country are celebrating Pride throughout the month of June, President Barack Obama is joining in. His campaign website features "LGBT Americans for Obama," a microsite that reflects on Obama's LGBT-related accomplishments over the last three and a half years as President and looks ahead to some goals for the future.

The website trumpets the Obama administration's progress on LGBT issues in a new campaign video. The video shows the President's work on granting health care and hospital visitation rights for same-sex partners, repealing the anti-gay "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy, and pushing through the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. 

The video also highlights the President's recent announcement of his support for the freedom to marry. The President reflects on his declaration, stating, "It's part of my overall belief that all of the LGBT couples that I meet across the country - their families, their children, their commitments to each other - are as strong and as precious as anyone else's."

This weekend, the White House also published a video that features the President celebrating the "unsung heroes" of the LGBT community. In the video, which asks supporters to join him in celebrating Pride, the President says:

We also remember the unsung heroes - the millions of LGBT Americans for whom everyday acts have acquried extraordinary courage: The young people who came out as gay or transgender to their parents, not knowing what to expect; the two moms or two dads who went to an open house or PTA meeting not knowing how they'd be received; the couple that got married even if their bosses or neighbors didn't approve - at least not right away. Most of these heroes didn't set out to make history - but that's exactly what they did. Bit by bit, step by step, they bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice. 

Over the past year, over 122,000 Freedom to Marry supporters nationwide have stood alongside prominent civil rights leaders, celebrities, professional athletes and civic leaders as part of our "Say I Do" campaign to encourage the President to support the freedom to marry. We are thrilled that the President publicly announced his view that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, and we are continually astounded by President Obama's vocal support for LGBT Americans across the country.