Wife of presumptive Democratic nominee draws comparison between gay rights battle, African-American civil rights movement

Michelle Obama speaks to the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council about her husband’s support for legislation banning anti-gay discrimination in the workplace and for civil unions for same-sex couples.

NEW YORK — Barack Obama will fight for equal rights for gays just as he fought to help working-class families overcome economic inequalities, his wife told a gay Democratic group on June 26.

Recalling how her husband worked as a community organizer to right the wrongs faced by struggling families, Michelle Obama said he would take the same approach as president.

“Barack believes that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws,” she told the crowd at a Manhattan fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee’s Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council.

The wife of the Democratic candidate also drew a connection between the gay rights struggle and the civil rights movement.

“We are all only here because of those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in the pursuit of a more perfect union,” she told the group, gathered a two days before the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots between gays and New York police, and three days before New York’s gay Pride parade. “The world as it is should be one that rejects discrimination of all kinds.”

Touting her husband’s record of pushing for workplace discrimination legislation as an Illinois state senator and his support of civil unions, Obama noted her husband also had brought a call for equality to conservative groups, telling churchgoers they need to combat homophobia in the black community. He wants “equal treatment for any relationship recognized under state law,” she said.

The Illinois senator opposes a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and says each state should make its own decision on the matter. He has said he’s interested in ensuring that same-sex couples in civil unions get federal benefits.

His Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, also opposes a federal constitutional amendment but worked to ban gay marriage in his home state. McCain supports the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, while Obama has called it “counterproductive.”

Michelle Obama’s speech was met with a standing ovation from the crowd of about 200 donors, who raised about $1.3 million, according to organizers.

Earlier in the day, she spoke in Manchester, N.H., crediting her husband’s former main Democratic rival, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, with bringing the concerns of working families to the forefront of the presidential campaign.



This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 4, 2008.