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Freeperville and the professional anti-gay bleaters will be all over this one. VIa press release:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press SecretaryFor Immediate Release September 28, 2009
FAMILY DAY, 2009
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATIONOur family provides one of the strongest influences on ourlives. American families from every walk of life have taught ustime and again that children raised in loving, caring homes have the ability to reject negative behaviors and reach their highest potential. Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things. Today, our children are confronting issues of drug and alcohol use with astonishing regularity. On Family Day, we honor the dedication of parents, commend the achievements of their children, and celebrate the contributions our Nation’s families have made to combat substance abuse among young people.
The 21st century presents families with unprecedented challenges. Millions of women and men are struggling to balance the demands of their jobs with the needs of their families. At the same time, our youngest generation faces countless distractions in their social environment. They are coming of age in a world where electronic devices have replaced the playground, televisions have preempted conversation, and pressure to use drug and alcohol is far too prevalent. Parents bear significant stress and burdens to protect their children from harmful influences.
It is our responsibility to talk with adolescents about the risks of abusing alcohol, tobacco, or prescription and illicit drugs, and other harmful behaviors. These substances can destroy the mind, body, and spirit of a child, jeopardizing their health and limiting their potential. Active parents, voicing their disapproval of drug use, have proven themselves to be the most effective preventative method for keeping our children drug-free. A strong and engaged family can make all the difference in helping young people make healthy decisions.
By coming together as a family and discussing the events of the day, parents can foster open communication, share joys and concerns, and help guide their children toward healthy decision making. A strong nation is made up of strong families,and on this Family Day, we rededicate ourselves to ensuring that every American family has the chance to build a better, healthier future for themselves and their children.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 28, 2009, as Family Day. I call upon the people of the United States to join together in observing this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities to honor and strengthen our Nation’s families.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
34 Comments
I have to sayI’m glad he included lgbt families and single parent families (who are also affected by right wing rhetoric and policies) in this…Kudos to him for beating the religious right at their own game. “Family Day” sounds like it is straight out of the fundie playbook. If they oppose this one they’ll certainly look like hypocrites.
Honeyed words, easy to sayMr. President, when are you going to actually DO something for same-sex couples and their children? Other than make ceremonial proclamations, that is.
HeyIt’s a positive step in the right direction. And it certainly can help our friends in Maine and Washington State.
Granted, these statements in proclamations look like doggy bones now, I wonder how they will look in 20 years or so?
Nice as far as it goes……but essentially meaningless.
Meh.When I’m seen as a human being rather than the wet, smelly tennis ball in a game of keep-away, the I’ll consider giving a damn what this lying, two-faced cretin says.
Words have powerSome of his statements were used in Yes on 8 ads, and we called him out for those words. I seems like any words that are spoken against us we grant power to, and any words that are spoken for us we say are powerless without action.
Anytime…we are included as opposed to being excluded, it’s a good thing but then actions do speak louder than words.
I agreeIt’s not a full meal, but I’ll happily accept Little Debbie cakes when I’m hungry. Hopefully as an aperitif. :)
For 8 Years…For everyone who thinks little of his “words”…. for 8 years you heard N.O.T.H.I.N.G.! If you have not noticed, the President is just a little busy right now…
Truly a president for everybodyAnyone who says there’s no difference between Democrats and RepubliKKKans clearly is not paying attention. The GOP actively courts the voters who’d herd us all into concentration camps. At their worst, those Dems who don’t actively work for us at least don’t support anti-LGBT bigotry.
No reaction that I can find so far, but Beck will smell blood in the waterAnd I do appreciate President Obama recognising us.
Mr Beck, alas, will recognise only the opportunity to spread hatred and unfounded fears of a secret socialist plot to use same-sex families to spread national healthcare to undocumented aliens via a czar.
It is nothing more than the appearance of a positive stepMy point is that President Obama has gone out of his way to avoid taking any steps whatsoever on the issues of GLBT rights and equality.
He is giving us noting except wordsWe are not getting a snack cake: he is simply telling us that they are yummy and we should try them some day.
Two ParentsI find it distressing that Obama differentiates “Parents” and “Same Sex Couples”, thereby saying that only opposite sex couples are parents. In fact, regardless of sexual orientation, the people who raise children are parents. This is, in my opinion, another example of the problems that Obama has caused himself by not having any LGBT senior advisers.
Fixed it for you
What tangible progress there has been – the HIV travel ban being lifted, the end of the prohibition on federal funding of clean needle exchanges, state-level equality efforts – have all happened in spite of POTUS, not because of him.
I sit corrected, thank youI can’t speak of his actions for or against the HIV travel ban or ending the prohibition against federal funding of needle exchanges, but is actions on state-level progress prove your point. There is that abomination of a defense of federal DOMA and his refusal to speak of Referendum 71 in Washington, Proposition 1 in Maine, legislative action in Vermont, court rulings in Iowa, etc.
Articles regarding needle exchange and the travel banDespite campaign promises to dump it, the Obama administration’s proposed budget explicitly included the ban on federal funding for clean needle exchange programs, which have been proven to reduce HIV transmission. In July 2008, Congress voted to overturn the federal ban on HIV+ people coming into the U.S., but neither Bush’s HHS nor Obama’s HHS ever changed the immigration and customs policies to reflect the law, effectively leaving the travel ban in place. Three months ago, that changed thanks to a handful of AIDS activists, and House Democrats unwilling to treat people with HIV/AIDS like criminals any longer.
Travel Ban lifted thanks to Rep. Jim McDermott, White House was silent.
Clean needle exchange funding ban removed from budget thanks to House Dems.
Yes we can, but we won’t. Chronicles Obama’s active opposition to repeal of DADT.
Thank you again n/t
Oh goody a presedential proclimation…….you know it took as long for him to sign this as it would to take him to sign an Executive Order to recind ‘DADT’.
He’s usless to me.
The most useful response (IMHO)…Does anybody think George Bush would ever have said this??? Yes, this is little more than a bone tossed in our direction, but it would have been so easy and far less risky for him to simply delete the phrase “a same-sex couple.” He took a risk by putting this in. You know that this will become appear in wingnut fundraising letters and speeches in the coming months.
I suggest that the most useful response is to be appreciative when we get statements like this, but keep up the pressure to get all the things we are still waiting for.
When we express disdain over statements like this, we come off as ungrateful snots who complain when somebody does something nice for us – even something small. If Obama were to hear this, I think he would be most likely to say, “THIS is the thanks I get when I include them in a speech??? F*ck ‘em.”
FAR More Important NewsKevin Jennings has been targeted Considering President Obama’s overwhelming fortitude and resolve how long before Jennings is thrown under the bus?
look at the positive sideIt was the least he could do.
After FoxNews.com truncated Jennings’ quote, Wash. Times, Fox Nation accuse “safe school czar” of “encouraging” statutory rapedon’t be so fast to judge…..
http://mediamatters.org/resear…
use the Van Jones measurementTook Fox et al all of July and August to take Van Jones down, including 14 episodes on Glenn Beck. Of course, that’s the summer news cycle. My guess is that Mr. Jennings will last another month, less than that if a Congressional committee chair calls for an investigation.
Apparently you won’t last long in this Administration if you ever said, wrote or joined anything to the left of the Boy Scouts of America. Obama will be lucky to hang on to any talent at all.
obama is good about mentioning gay people in his speecheshe has generally made it a point to mention gay people in his speeches. it is a good start, and a refreshing change of pace, to be considered on equal grounds as (*gasp*) ordinary citizens.
but it all stops there. he has shown us outright hostility with his decisions and actions and caused us purposeful harm. we’ve only ever asked to be treated equally and to have him fulfill his campaign promises, which he has officially indicated that he has no intention of doing in any capacity. the people that got him elected into office expected a better man than what they got. fuck his words–he’s a bigot that hasn’t served us boo. if this is the example he’s setting for america–where we say nice things about gay folks while denying them their rights and basic humanity–then we’re all screwed.
Yeah, andBill Clinton (and Dick Cheney, ffs) have gone on record as being in support of gay marriage and/or repealing DOMA. so? Pretty words, pretty words, words dripping in blood.
I’m guessing not much different.“…gay and lesbian rights movement has united gays and lesbians, their families and friends…” –President Clinton, 2000
It looks pretty much the same ten years later, at least.
Proclaim ThisSo far Heterosupremacist in Chief Obama’s proclamations have been made through his administration’s briefs stopping SCOTUS from hearing cases on Discriminatory Offensive Marriage Attack and Don’t Ask Just Kick the Queers Out & Replace them with Fascists and Felons.
His administration proclaimed that marriage equality is the same as raping children (pedophilia & incest). As a candidate he said that he is against marriage equality and only for protecting the rights of preachers not to perform religious wedding ceremonies.
His admninistration proclaimed that kicked gays and lesbians out of the military may be good for unity. Obama proclaimed that kicking more than 420 gays and lesbians out of the military is fine with him. He proclaimed that he is willing to revise not repeal that unconstitutional law. He has been blocking members of congress from moving on repealing this law.
He can proclaim all he wants, but Congress will have to pass veto-proof bills repealing these two outrageous theocRATic laws.
some of my best friends are gay people!This would’ve been daring 15 years ago. The line of scrimmage has moved. Show me a serious WH push to repeal DOMA and I’ll take him more seriously.
No shock, I hope.Recognizing same sex couples as families in America was part of my work as the DNC Platform Committee work, where I was the first transgender person appointed by a DNC Chair (Gov. Howard Dean) as a Standing Committee member, which was Platform.
Including same-sex couples as families was an outcome of that work, and it became a resultant part of Nominee, now President Obama’s policy priorities.
We dis-serve ourselves to imagine that these commitments fall from the sky. They don’t. This is part of the progression of work that we all do. From wish, to assertion, to DNC Platform drafting desire, to Platform language inclusion, to White House Policy Priorities inclusion, same-sex couples as families has been part of the plan, and then part of the promise.
Don’t be surprised with President Obama delivers on a promise. Just know that some things take time, and this promise is delivered as its time emerged.
It’s a celebration to be included. But it should not be a surprise. It should be a rightful celebration, delivered in good time, framed as a delivery of a promise.
Give me a breakIf he had issued a proclamation about Family Day without mentioning GLBTs, we’d all be pissed. He mentions us in a proclamation about Family Day, and many folks here are pissed. Jeebus, Obama can’t win for losing.
Clever Hans: a German folk taleLOL I can’t help but be impressed by how cleverly subtle Obama can be in the pursuit of our interests.
He casually includes gay couples in the list of parents we should include on this day. By this, he’s saying that gays are a normal part of the reality around us, that gays form couples and are parents like the others in his list.
That we honor the dedication of parents including gay parents, commend the achievements of their children, and celebrate the contributions our Nation’s families, including gay families have made to combat substance abuse among young people.
That they, like the others can help guide their children toward healthy decision making, and so on.
It leaves no handle for critics to grasp. When gay couples succeed in everything the others in the group do, what’s the problem?
Whoopee-do!Nice affirmation, but utterly void of meaning.
This statement does not give me ANY of the over 1,138 federal rights, benefits and legal protections bestowed upon opposite sex couples.
As long as DOMA is on the books and the Obama administration actively works to defend it in court, then this means nothing!
Utter rubbish!