Professor Van Ry

“Our journey is not 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.” President Barack Obama

It was considered a historic speech. Not because of the crowd or because of the dress that First Lady Michelle Obama wore on that cold winter day. It was considered historic because it was the first time a president used the word gay in an inaugural speech.

The LGBT community considered it to be a momentous occasion. Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty wrote, “President Obama on Monday became the first president to use the word “gay” as a reference to sexual orientation in an inaugural address, declaring the movement for equality to be part of the pantheon of America’s great civil rights struggles.”

It’s 2013 and it shouldn’t have taken this long.

To others in the LGBT community it was another example in how their needs have been forgotten. Drew Cordes, a member of the transgender community and a writer for The Bilerico Project said, “President Obama made sure to phrase it “gay brothers and sisters” and NOT use the acronym LGBT. Trans-people left out once again.”

You may not care. You may wonder why people always want to be acknowledged. If you feel that way, think to whenever someone may have acknowledged you. Perhaps you are an Italian-American and you feel a sense of pride when someone talks about your heritage. Everyone in the LGBT community wants that same type of recognition.

Many people felt it was a victory because it was a major goal to get a president to acknowledge the LGBT community. Cordes went on to say, “Let’s be sure not to lump us and our goals all together. The concerns of trans-people are not the same as the concerns of gay men and women. So when the president comes out in support of gay men and women (admirably, I might add), don’t identify it as an LGBT victory. It’s an LGB victory. I know a lot of trans people who were less than thrilled by his choice of wording.”

She’s right. Even within a marginalized group like the LGBT community there is marginalization. <Read more.>

Via Peter DeWitt, Education Week.