A Quote by Barack Obama
I think that people are concerned about the breakdown of the family but they also don't want to see discrimination against gays and lesbians who they work with and they want to be able to make sure that gays can visit each other in hospitals and be able to inherit property.
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What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they're not discriminated on the job.
There are tons of gay issues that are important, from gay marriage to adoption rights to work-place discrimination and more... but I think the biggest gay issue is the level of involvement of the gay community to demand change. So many gays think that other gays will take care of it. To fix this, people need to realize that they CAN make a change, but no one person can do it alone.
You could protect a religious minority against gays and lesbians. Or you could protect gays and lesbians against a religious minority. And then, it seems to me something political is happening. Because we're not really looking at the kind of speech that is injurious.
There are gays and lesbians in every country, so there should be no discrimination against them just because of their destiny.
Right now the institution of marriage feels very one-sided, and I want to live in a country where we all have equal rights. I have so many friends who are gays and lesbians who would so badly want to get married, that I wouldn't be able to sleep with myself [if I got married before they could].
Every gay who is in the closet is ultimately a threat to the freedom of gays. I don't want to seem intolerant to them and I think we have to say that to them with a great deal of affection, but remaining in the closet is the other side of the prejudice against gays. Because until you challenge it, you are not playing an active role in fighting it.
I don't think it's the responsibility of gays and lesbians to reinvent the family.
Gays and lesbians gained rights in this country though activism and organizing, creating political space and demanding change so that lawmakers and justices could do what they knew was right. That organizing allowed Americans to get to know gays and lesbians as our daughters and sons, our neighbors, and our friends.
I don't think there is any good answer to the question why shouldn't gays and lesbians who want to serve their country be allowed to do it.
While increasing acceptance of gays marks my generational experience - Ellen DeGeneres is welcomed into the living rooms of millions of Americans daily, an impossibility in even my childhood - many who are older than me fear that if gays and lesbians can marry, what's next?
You can't be positive to everybody. A lot of people want to focus on flaws and negativity, especially on the Internet because that's their only voice. I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff. I pay attention to opportunities coming my way, gays and lesbians telling me what I've done for them, organizations in my community that always want to work with me.
We've got gays working there. If they can demonstrate long-term relationships, we make same-sex benefits available just as we do with common-law marriages. Gays are productive people. Some fly airplanes, some work in breweries.
The gays like 'Project Runway' because it's a fashion, and the gays are into fashion and into design. It's a creative industry, and most of the gays are pretty creative, in general. That's just like the culture. We're not all into politics necessarily. We're more into the creative environment. I also think Heidi is a big draw. The boys love Heidi and think she's so fabulous. I just think it's a glitzy, fun show, and there are also always lots of gay boys on it, and, you know, that's fun.
If we want to do away with the injustice to gays it will not be done because we get rid of the injustice to gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice to all. And we will win the rights for gays, or blacks, or Hispanics, or women within the context of whether we are fighting for all.
We've got to get rid of this discrimination, this chilling, this bigotry toward gays and lesbians that are reflected in literally hundreds and hundreds of statutes and regulations in this country.
I think we will have full marriage rights in Colorado. But in 1992, there was a very hateful Amendment 2 that basically made it legal for any institution to deny gays and lesbians access, whether it's hospitals or restaurants or employment. Anybody could fire you or not let you in a restaurant because you were gay.
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