For the third year in a row, President Barack Obama has declared June a month to celebrate homosexuals

Obama declares June homosexual pride month

by Peter J. Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For the third year in a row, President Barack Obama has declared June a month to celebrate homosexuals.

“Every generation of Americans has brought our Nation closer to fulfilling its promise of equality. While progress has taken time, our achievements in advancing the rights of LGBT Americans remind us that history is on our side, and that the American people will never stop striving toward liberty and justice for all,” wrote Obama, in declaring June to be “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Month.”

Obama’s first declaration of “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Month” was June 2009, which marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The homosexual movement traces its origins to June 1969 at Stonewall Inn in New York City, where a group of homosexuals rioted in protest against police raids on gay bars.

In this year’s proclamation, Obama noted that June 2011 marks the “30th anniversary of the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has had a profound impact on the LGBT community.”

The president also noted that he had overturned the U.S. military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

He added that the administration was also implementing the “Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” and working with educators to stop bullying against homosexual youths.
Obama also noted that his administration is selecting “highly qualified, openly LGBT individuals to executive branch and judicial positions.” He added that his administration is committed to making the United States a world leader in “the fight against pernicious laws targeting LGBT persons and malicious attempts to exclude LGBT organizations from full participation in the international system.” 

Unlike last year’s LGBT month proclamation, Obama did not mention repeal of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act as an administrative priority.

The president stated that for the LGBT community “history is on our side,” adding that achieving rights for persons identifying as homosexuals is part of Americans “striving toward liberty and justice for all.”

The proclamation can be read here.