Voices
Congress step up, we can put an
end to this form of discrimination once and for all.
Passing ENDA would build on
the progress we’ve made in recent
years. We stood up against hate
crimes with the Matthew Shepard Act and lifted the entry ban
for travelers with HIV. We ended
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” so our brave
servicemen and women can serve
openly the country they love, no
matter who they love. We prohibited discrimination in housing and
hospitals that receive federal funding, and we passed the Violence
Against Women Act, which includes
protections for LGBT Americans.
My Administration had stopped
defending the so-called Defense of
Marriage Act, and earlier this year
the U.S. Supreme Court struck
down that discriminatory law.
Now we’re implementing that ruling, giving married couples access
to the federal benefits they were
long denied. And across the nation,
as more and more states recognize
marriage equality, we’re seeing loving couples — some who have been
together for decades — finally join
their hands in marriage.
America is at a turning point.
We’re not only becoming more
accepting and loving as a people,
BARACK
OBAMA
HUFFINGTON
11.10.13
we’re becoming more just as a
nation. But we still have a way to
go before our laws are equal to
our Founding ideals. As I said in
my second inaugural address, our
nation’s journey toward equality
isn’t complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like
anyone else under the law, for if
we are truly created equal, then
surely the love we commit to one
another must be equal as well.
America is at a turning
point. We’re not only becoming
more accepting and loving as
a people, we’re becoming more
just as a nation.”
In America of all places, people
should be judged on the merits:
on the contributions they make in
their workplaces and communities,
and on what Martin Luther King Jr.
called “the content of their character.” That’s what ENDA helps us do.
When Congress passes it, I will sign
it into law, and our nation will be
fairer and stronger for
generations to come.
Barack Obama is the President
of the United States of America.