Senator Obama just released an open letter concerning LGBT equality in America, reaffirming his steadfast commitment to equal rights for ALL Americans.
I’m running for President to build an America that lives up to our foundingpromise of equality for all – a promise that extends to our gay brothersand sisters. It’s wrong to have millions of Americans living as second-classcitizens in this nation. And I ask for your support in this election so thattogether we can bring about real change for all LGBT Americans.
Click here to read the rest.
In a display of his commitment to spreading the message of equal rights for all, Senator Obama has taken out full-page ads in several LGBT newspapers in Texas and Ohio.
The ad, which will be featured in Outlook Weekly in Columbus, the Gay People's Chronicle in Cleveland, The Dallas Voice, and OutSmart in Houston.
Click here to read more on the advertisements.
This article recently published in Bay Windows, a leading LGBT newspaper.
Check out the article at Queerty
The campaign received this email today, and I wanted to repost it to show the effect this campaign is having on ordinary Americans.
I'm a lesbian who grew up in a family of Southern Church of Christ Christians. I'm a military brat even more than that, the daughter of a warrant officer in the army. In high school, I spent a lot of time being afraid and disgusted at how the world treated lesbians and gays, and I didn't even come out of the closet until I graduated college and had divorced twice. (Both marriages pressured by my parents.) When Bush was elected, I had hoped that America would change, but it just got worse. And worse. And worse. When I came out to my parents, they shunned me, and my father told me that we would never have a relationship again because I didn't hold the same convictions that they did.The fear and bleakness of my future terrified me. This year, I'll be 25, and my son will be 3. Senator, I want you to know that more than voting for you, I'll be putting my son's future in your hands. I know that you can help us shape this country into what it was supposed to be... A haven of peace for everyone. What it should have been from the start.
Read the rest below the fold...
It's just three days away. On February 5th, nearly half the country will cast their votes to determine the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States. If you're reading this, you probably know as well as I do that our country needs Barack Obama.
And you can help make that a reality. We'll be making phone calls into other February 5th states every day until the end. We need to Get Out The Vote, from California to Georgia, from Connecticut to Alaska. And we need your help to do that.Please join us at the Chicago Volunteer Headquarters whenever you can. The office is on the 10th floor of 300 W. Adams in Chicago, right across the street from the Sears Tower. Our hours through the 5th are:
Saturday: 9 AM to 8 PM
Sunday Noon - 5 PM, with special guest US Rep Jan Schakowksy at 1 (RSVP HERE)
Monday 9 AM to 9 PM, with special guests US Rep Jesse Jackson Jr, US Rep Jan Schakowsky, and Dr. Cornel West. (RSVP HERE).
Tuesday 9 AM to 7 PM
Please join us! If you have any questions, please call us at 312-506-0909.
YES WE CAN!
The New York Blade, a weekly LGBT newspaper in New York City, recently published an Op-Ed written by several Obama supporters. You can read the full article here, and an excerpt below the fold. This is just another example of the grassroots support Senator Obama has all over the country.
Continue Reading...
We have an exciting week ahead of us at the Chicago Volunteer Headquarters as we continue to call into South Carolina. We will be joined by special guests Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White tonight and US Represenative Danny Davis tomorrow night. Please join us and help the cause! Read more for details...
We never rest here at the Illinois Headquarters, because there's always more work to be done. All this week, we are expanding our hours to help make calls into South Carolina before their important primary on Saturday.
Join us Wednesday night at 5:30 PM at our Chicago Volunteer Headquarters to listen to Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and to call voters in South Carolina. It's sure to be a good time and it couldn't be more important.
Details below the fold...
Barack spoke today at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
You can read his full remarks here, but I want to bring to light a particular passages, reproduced below.
For most of this country’s history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man’s inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays – on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system.
And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King’s vision of a beloved community.
We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.
Senator Obama has been out front about these issues throughout his campaign and his career. He has spoken before all audiences and delivered the same messages of expanding rights and taking our own to task when need be. I strongly encourage everyone to read the entire speech.
After a thrilling victory in Iowa and a down-to-the-wire finish in one of our opponent’s strongest states, the election is really heating up now and we need your help to make sure that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee.
There are several ways you can help the campaign in the upcoming weeks. We’re so close, and we need your help to finish strong.
If you are interested in any of the above activities, please contact alex okrent at aokrent@barackobama.com or call 312-506-0909.
Chicago, IL | November 30, 2007
Chicago, IL -- This World AIDS Day is a time to reflect on what this global crisis is costing us. It's a cost that's measured in generations lost, in cultures traumatized, and in societies that have grown more unstable as a result of this pandemic. And it's a cost that 33 million people worldwide bear each day as they struggle to live with this disease. And what makes all of this so heartbreaking is that it was - in each and every case - entirely preventable.
And yet, this is also a time to draw inspiration from the stories of heroism that are being lived each day. It's a time to draw hope from the extraordinary perseverance of those helping combat this disease around the world. And above all, it's a time to stay focused on the task ahead - stopping the spread of this disease once and for all.
That is what I will fight to do as President. As part of my comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy, we'll provide $50 billion by 2013 to fight the pandemic, and contribute our fair share to the Global Fund. I'll work to dispel the stigma surrounding this disease, which is what Michelle and I tried to do by taking a public HIV test in Kenya a while back. I'll expand the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief by $1 billion a year in new money over the next five years so we can reach more people in places like Southeast Asia, India, and Eastern Europe, where the pandemic is growing. We'll make sure medications developed with taxpayer dollars are available as generics in developing countries - because a person shouldn't be denied life-saving drugs just because we can't find a way to reform our patent laws. And we'll work to eliminate the extreme poverty that permits HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria to flourish by doubling our foreign assistance from $25 billion per year to $50 billion per year by 2012.
But leadership on HIV/AIDS has to start at home. We recently learned that our nation's capital has the highest AIDS infection rate of any city in this country. That is an outrage. It's time to launch a national effort to stop this disease, starting with African Americans, who are being affected disproportionately.
We cannot give the boy back the parents he lost or the woman back the future she had dreamed of. But what we can do is prevent any more suffering. What's stopping us is not a lack of knowledge or resources, but a lack of will. And until we - as Americans and as human beings - summon the will to end this moral crisis, the conscience of our nation cannot rest.
Senator Obama sat down recently with Kerry Eleveld of the Advocate, one of the most respected and widely-circulated LGBT publications in the country. The full text of the interview can be found here.
Let us know what you think about the Senator's answers in the comments section.
Senator Obama penned an op-ed circulated around the country this week, expressing his views on full equality for members of the LGBT Community.
A Call for Full Equality
by Barack Obama
Over the last several weeks, the question of LGBT equality was placed on center stage by the appearance of Donnie McClurkin at one of my campaign events. McClurkin is a talented performer and a beloved figure among many African Americans and Christians around the country. At the same time, he espouses beliefs about homosexuality that I completely reject.
(Continue reading below the jump)
African American Religious and LGBT Leaders
Call for Communities to Find Common Ground
CHICAGO, IL- Obama supporters and leaders in the LGBT and African American faith communities released the following letter today calling on members of their communities to come together to find common ground.
To Whom It May Concern:
As representatives of Barack Obama supporters from the African American religious community and the gay community, we are issuing a statement together for the first time. Our letter addresses the recent issue of Pastor Donnie McClurkin singing at Senator Obama’s “Embrace the Change” concert series. In the midst of division, we hope and believe that this is a moment to bring together communities that have been divided for far too long.
A few things are clear.
First, Pastor McClurkin believes and has stated things about sexual orientation that are deeply hurtful and offensive to many Americans, most especially to gay Americans. This cannot and should not be denied.
At the same time, a great many African Americans share Pastor McClurkin’s beliefs. This also cannot be ignored.
Finally, we believe that the only way for these two sides to find common ground is to do so together.
Not at arms length. Not in a war of words with press and pundits. Only together.
It is clear that Barack Obama is the only candidate who has made bringing these two often disparate groups together a goal. In gatherings of LGBT Americans and African Americans of faith, Obama has stated that all individuals should be afforded full civil rights regardless of their sexual orientation, and that homophobia must be eradicated in every corner of our nation. If we are to end homophobia and secure full civil rights for gay Americans, then we need an advocate within the Black community like Barack Obama.
At the same time, while Obama has said that he "strongly disagrees" with Pastor McClurkin's comments, he will not exclude from his campaign the many Americans including many in the African American community who believe the same as Pastor McClurkin.
We believe that Barack Obama is constructing a tent big enough for LGBT Americans who know that their sexual orientation is an innate and treasured part of their being, and for African American ministers and citizens who believe that their religion prevents them from fully embracing their gay brothers and sisters. And if we are to confront our shared challenges we have to join together, build on common ground, and engage in a civil dialogue even when we disagree.
We also ask Senator Obama’s critics to consider the alternatives. Would we prefer a candidate who ignores the realities in the African American community and cuts off millions of Blacks who believe things offensive to many Americans? Or a panderer who tells African Americans what they want to hear, at the expense of our gay brothers and sisters? Or would we rather stand with Barack Obama, who speaks truth in love to both sides, pulling no punches but foreclosing no opportunities to engage?
We stand with Senator Obama. We stand with him because of the solutions he is proposing for our nation. We stand with him because of his character and his judgment. But the most important reason we stand with him is because today, as he has done all along, Barack Obama is causing us to stand together.
That's the kind of President we need, and we are proud to support him.
Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr.
Olivet Institutional Baptist Church
Chair, Obama National African American Religious Leaders Working Group
Cleveland, Ohio
Stampp Corbin
Chair, Obama National LGBT Leadership Council
Former Member of Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors
Columbus, Ohio
Tobias Barrington Wolff
Chair, Obama LGBT Policy Committee
Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Philadelphia, PA
The Reverend Stephen John Thurston
President
National Baptist Convention of America
Chicago, IL
The Reverend Alvin Love
Baptist General State Convention of Illinois, Inc.
Bishop E. Earl McCloud, Jr.
Office of Ecumenical & Urban Affairs
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Atlanta, GA
Steven Latasa-Nicks
President, The Phelon Group, Inc.
Former Human Rights Campaign Board of Governors
New York, NY
Maxim Thorne
Former COO, Human Rights Campaign
Paterson, NJ
Phil Burgess
Former Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors
Rev. Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner
Skinner Leadership Institute
Tracy’s Landing, MD
Rev. Michael Pfleger
St. Sabina, Chicago
Rev. Edward Taylor
San Jose, CA
The Reverend Robert H. Thompson
Exeter, NH
Sharon Malheiro
LGBT Activist
Des Moines, IA
Hon. Jon Cooper
Majority Leader, Suffolk County (NY) Legislature
Rev. Paul Hobson Sadler, Sr., Pastor
Mt. Zion Congregational UCC
Statement on Rev. McClurkin
"I have clearly stated my belief that gays and lesbians are our brothers and sisters and should be provided the respect, dignity, and rights of all other citizens. I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts of our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country. I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin's views and will continue to fight for these rights as President of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division."
~ Barack Obama10/22/07
In 1988, Dr. Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary celebrated the first National Coming Out Day, in honor of an historic march for gay and lesbian rights DC one year earlier. Since then, October 11th has been a day for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, along with their allies, to speak openly about their sexuality and encourage others to do so as well.
In honor of National Coming Out Day, Senator Obama today released the following statement:
(continue reading)
The Obama Campaign was excited to receive the endorsement yesterday of Bishop V. Gene Robinson.
There's an excellent interview with the Bishop in the latest edition of the Advocate and can be found online here: http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid47851.asp
Also exciting is the historic upcoming HRC Forum on August 9th in which Senator Obama is participating. We're encouraging people around the country to host house parties to invite their neighbors, friends and families to watch the Forum. For more information, please visit http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hphrclogo.
Thanks, and stay tuned for more information!
Alex Okrent
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ben LaBolt (Obama)
WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today released the following statement on the nomination of Dr. James Holsinger for Surgeon General:
“America’s top doctor should be a doctor for all Americans, and so I have serious reservations about nominating someone who would inject his own anti-gay ideology into critical decisions about the health and well-being of our nation. As with other nominees, I will listen to the testimony of Dr. James Holsinger, but this Administration must know that the United States Surgeon General’s office is no place for bigotry or ideology that would trump sound science and good judgment.”
