LGBT Obama Inauguration Reactions: 'Pure Euphoria'
Posted: 01/22/2013 6:05 pm EST | Updated: 01/22/2013 6:10 pm EST
By Lila Shapiro
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/22/lgbt-obama-inauguration_n_2528918.html?ref=topbarDuring the Inauguration, Meghan Stabler, a transwoman and a member of the Board of Directors for the Human Rights Campaign, was standing on the northwest side of the Capitol steps with a bunch of gay and lesbian people. "We were all waiting for the word gay to come up, and then we heard Stonewall and a few of us had tears in our eyes," Stabler said on Tuesday, her voice breaking up again recalling the moment. "Then we heard gay," she added, "and we just lost it."
Diego Sanchez, who worked for the former congressman Barney Frank as the first openly transgender congressional legislative staffer, celebrated his 56th birthday, watching from the seats on the south side of the Capitol. Sanchez grew up in Augusta, Ga. He was 11 years old when, after Dr. Martin Luther King's death, rioters filled the streets and the city was put on curfew. "It was so scary," he wrote in an email, "I didn't know if things would ever be ok, for so many reasons."
"And then on my 56th birthday," Sanchez wrote, "a big part of 'I have a dream' was made real, again."
Although the word transgender was never mentioned directly, Sanchez and Stabler both said that they felt included and touched by the president's words.
"Some people will complain that gay is not inclusive of trans people, but it really is," Stabler said. "And the president's words matter because it signals that it's okay to say this, it moves the conversation from uniqueness towards normality."
