For the fifth year in a row, President Obama and Vice President Biden hosted a pride event at the White House, an event in which openly gay lawmakers, soldiers, and average American families gather together to celebrate LGBT accomplishments and to champion causes yet won.
After a heartfelt introduction from 9 year-old twins Zea and Luna, who came with their mothers, President Obama first laid out some of his achievements thus far -- the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Law, ending DADT, making clear that hospitals that accept Medicare or Medicaid must respect same-sex partners -- and then he outlined the many steps our nation must take toward a more perfect union: tighter gun control, more access to health care and, yes, passage of an Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
"In 34 states, you can be fired just because of who you are or who you love. That's wrong," President Obama said to the audience and their smartphones. "We've got to change it. There's a bipartisan bill moving forward in the Senate that would ban discrimination against all LGBT Americans in the workplace, now and forever. We need to get that passed. I want to sign that bill. We need to get it done now."
Whether that happens of course relies in part on how much pressure the White House is willing to exert on Congress.
In the meantime, here's video of the President's remarks.
