In case you have been living in a shell this past week, here’s
what you missed: both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden came
out in the media this week in favor of same-sex marriage. This is historic as
this is the first presidency in U.S. history to openly affirm LGBT individual’s
rights to marry.
This comes as good news for LGBT rights advocates as the
Obama administration has thus far had a bumpy roller coaster ride of a
presidential term.
They were able to pass the Matthew Shepard Act in 2010 finally
recognizing violence against LGBT individuals as a hate crime. And they successfully
repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in 2010 allowing gays and lesbians to openly
serve in the military. All of this was bolstered by marriage equality being legalized
in Connecticut in 2008; Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire in 2009; Washington
D.C. in 2010; and New York in 2011.
