Issue 39: Gay Rights

Featured Response: Gavin Creel || Actor / Co-founder, Broadway Impact

Gavin Creel

I hope that Barack Obama will extend his powerful grace to the LGBTQ community. Hope isn’t something that gay people in America have felt much in the last eight years. With an administration that has completely turned its back on them, LGBTQ citizens, along with most of the country, have been drugged into a lazy state of apathy and cynicism, despite our having had a sitting Vice President with an out, lesbian daughter. Ugh, don’t get me started…

I trust that President-Elect Obama is a man of his word, and I believe that he will work to ensure equal rights for gays. I do feel, however, that he has a lot more to learn about the specific issues surrounding our community, and it is our duty to educate him. With the mess he has inherited, there is obviously no way he can be all things for all people, so we need to take a page from his book and realize that we are the ones who must bring about change. The only way we can help him truly understand us is if we, as a unified people, gay and straight alike, get active in the discussion: call our representatives, find out where they stand on the issues, tell them our stories, GET INVOLVED.

The gay community cannot stay stuck in the same cynical space into which the Bush Administration has forced us. We are not an ignored, neglected people unless we let ourselves be. Now, we have a leader who is standing before us, saying…

I see you.

I can’t wait.

What Do You Think? Post Your Response

Tell us about you [optional fields]

Recent Responses

Today was a beautiful day and among all of the other issues, I am thrilled to know that the LGBTQ rights will be dealt with. He does give me hope in this matter.

—Anne, 24 from Croissy-sur-seine, A8 FR

44 Issues in 44 Days

Explore and respond to the issues that matter to you.

# 6: Conservation

Featured Response: Betsy Loyless || National Audubon Society

# 27: Poverty

Featured Response: Kristina Scott || Alabama Poverty Project

# 23: Style

Featured Response: Felecia Webb || Polo Ralph Lauren

# 10: Immigration

Featured Response: Annie Lai || American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona

# 24: Gun Control

Featured Response: David B. Kopel || Independence Institute

# 36: Fashion

Featured Response: Cator Sparks || CatorSparks.com

Inaugural Insight

  • The inauguration for the first U.S. president, George Washington, was held on April 30, 1789 in New York City.
  • Should January 20 be a Sunday, the President is usually administered the oath of office in a private ceremony on that day, followed by a public ceremony the following day.
  • Immediately following the oath, the bands play four ruffles and flourishes and "Hail to the Chief", followed by a 21-gun salute from howitzers of the Presidential Salute Battery.
  • The inaugural celebrations usually last ten days, from five days before the inauguration to five days after.
  • Since Thomas Jefferson's second inaugural on March 4, 1805, it has become tradition for the president to parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.
  • According to tradition, in the first inaugural, President Washington added the words "so help me God" when reciting the oath, although there is no contemporary evidence of this.
  • In 1977, Jimmy Carter started a new tradition by walking from the Capitol to the White House, although subsequent presidents have only walked part of the way for security reasons.
  • The War of 1812 and World War II forced two swearing-ins to be held at other locations in Washington, D.C.
  • The new President assumes power at noon on January 20th, regardless of whether or not he has actually taken the oath of office.
  • There is no requirement that any book, or in particular a book of sacred text, be used to administer the oath, and none is mentioned in the Constitution.

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Updates for this project + more from Crush + Lovely

Subscribe to RSS