Barack Obama Delivers Special Message To LGBTQ+ Community

Former President of the United States Barack Obama has delivered a special message to the LGBTQ+ community ahead of the Stonewall Day celebrations.

In a video uploaded on Logo’s YouTube channel, the 44th president of the U.S. delivered a strong message to the community and encouraged them to keep fighting for progress. Obama also explained how protests and politics go “hand in hand.”

He further stated it has been 51 years since the guests at the Stonewall Inn stood up for their rights and realized one of America’s “most-defining” achievements for civil rights.

Stonewall Day is an event that commemorates the demonstrations that took place at New York’s Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. In 1969, the bar’s gay patrons fought back against police brutality and initiated the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

“We are almost 51 years since the night when the patrons at the Stonewall Inn stood up for their rights and set off one of America’s defining victories for civil rights,” Obama said in the video.

Later in the clip, the former president explained that the protests that took place in 1969 sparked a “movement” due to which marriage equality became a law in the country in 2015. He also cited the recent Supreme Court ruling that states it is illegal for an employer to terminate an employee on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

"Because of the movement they sparked and decades of work that followed, marriage equality became the law of the land five years ago. And just this month, Supreme Court ruled that employers can no longer discriminate against LGBTQ workers. All that progress is worth celebrating and reflecting on,” Obama said in the clip.

The clip concluded with Obama saying that people have to “shine a light” on injustice and translate the aspirations of the LGBTQ+ community into specific laws.

“The struggle and triumph for LGBTQ rights show how protests and politics go hand in hand, how we've got to both shine a light on injustice and translate those aspirations into specific laws and institutional practices,” Obama said.

This year, the celebrations will take place virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. Logo, an entertainment brand inspired by the LGBTQ+ community, will live stream the event on its Facebook and YouTube accounts.

The event will raise funds for four LGBTQ+ organizations: Trans LifeLine, Brave Space Alliance, TransLatin@Coalition, and the Ally Coalition.

Apart from Obama, celebrities like Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Ellen DeGeneres will also be part of the celebrations.