LGBT Movement Warned Against Its Own Complacency
An annual meeting of LGBT activists, this time in Atlanta, came with celebration for all that has been accomplished with the most recent election and a warning.
BY Daniel Villarreal
January 25 2013 6:58 PM ET
http://www.advocate.com/politics/2013/01/25/lgbt-movement-warned-against-its-own-complacency (http://www.advocate.com/politics/2013/01/25/lgbt-movement-warned-against-its-own-complacency)
ATLANTA — Coming off a string of successes, LGBT activists were warned today against complacency.
During her annual State of the Movement Address to the 3,000 attendees of the 25th National Conference on LGBT Equality in Atlanta, Georgia, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director Rea Carey said the 2012 election yielded "a record number seven out members of Congress," "beat back marriage opponents in Minnesota," and "won marriage equality in Maine, Maryland and Washington State," but added that LGBT Americans must "resist the pressure to become smaller, to narrow our sights, to be lulled into thinking we are near the end of our work."
Carey declared, "We are family, and we will not leave any of you behind!" By "family," Carey meant the countless activists who have fought for LGBT rights over the Task Force's 40-year history as well as the many LGBT citizens who need legal protection beyond that offered by legal marriage equality.
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Among those still needing legal protection in the nation, Carey included those who choose not to get married, schoolchildren in need of comprehensive antibullying policies, transgender immigrant detainees who face sexual and physical abuse in federal detention facilities, trans people who can still be refused a hotel room or hospital care without public accommodations laws, any LGBT person living in a state without marriage equality or employment protections, and those suffering due to skyrocketing HIV rates.
Carey also highlighted the need to support those fighting for immigration, reproductive, labor, and economic rights. and reiterated, as she has in past years, that "we are not a one-issue movement."
"We will never be whole, we will never be free, until every single one of us feels safe to express ourselves sexually, intellectually, and spiritually and finds support in our homes, places of worship, and workplaces."
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WATCH: President Obama Thanks LGBT Activists at Creating Change
The commander in chief issued a brief video address to the thousands of LGBT activists gathered in Atlanta this week for the 25th Annual National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.
BY Sunnivie Brydum
January 25 2013 6:27 PM ET
http://www.advocate.com/politics/2013/01/25/watch-president-obama-thanks-lgbt-activists-creating-change (http://www.advocate.com/politics/2013/01/25/watch-president-obama-thanks-lgbt-activists-creating-change)
Fresh off his historically inclusive inaugural address, President Obama today issued a video address to LGBT activists gathered in Atlanta for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's 25th Annual National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.
In the brief video, posted to YouTube by the Task Force, Obama notes that real, lasting change doesn't begin in Washington.
"Change has always come from ordinary Americans who sit in or stand up or march to demand it," says the president. "The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has been a partner at the forefront of that movement for 40 years."