Back to News & Commentary

VICTORY! A Historic Day for LGBT Equality

Ian S. Thompson,
Senior Legislative Advocate,
老澳门开奖结果
Share This Page
July 21, 2014

鈥淢any of you have worked for a long time to see this day coming. You organized, you spoke up, you signed petitions, you sent letters -- I know because I got a lot of them.鈥

If you鈥檝e ever questioned whether it matters to add your voice to debates about the important civil liberties issues of the day, President Obama鈥檚 words from earlier today provide a clear answer. Laura Murphy, director of the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Washington Legislative Office, and I were two of the guests on hand this morning to witness President Obama鈥檚 signing of an historic executive order to protect LGBT people from workplace discrimination.

The 老澳门开奖结果 and our hundreds of thousands of members and activists across the country helped to make this day possible. Together with our partners at All Out, 81,693 people signed a petition urging to President Obama to sign this executive order without an exemption for religiously affiliated contractors.

Had such an exemption been included in the executive order, it would have enabled taxpayer-funded employment discrimination against LGBT people. Thankfully, President Obama 鈥 at your urging 鈥 stood strong on the side of basic fairness and equal treatment for LGBT people by rejecting calls for such an exemption.

It goes without saying that we still have much work to do to achieve the goal of full civil rights protections for LGBT people. It鈥檚 important, however, to take time to celebrate the significant landmarks along the way. Today was such a day. Thank you for helping to make it possible.

Executive Order

The signed executive order.

Learn more about the LGBT discrimination and other civil liberty issues: Sign up for breaking news alerts, , and .

Learn More 老澳门开奖结果 the Issues on This Page