President Obama delivers the State of the Union Address on January 27, 2010. (Photo from White House Web site.)
My article, “A Nation’s Priorities,” addressing the inclusion of and reaction to LGBT issues in tonight’s State of the Union Address is up at Metro Weekly:
Noting that one in 10 Americans are without work and that millions will lose their health insurance this year, President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union address on Wednesday night. It wasn’t, however, until the closing minutes of the speech that the man who said that he would be a ”fierce advocate” for LGBT equality mentioned any legislative issue specific to that equality.
In his third address to a joint session of Congress, Obama focused, for the first two-thirds of the speech, on the nation’s economic and employment problems. The latter portion of the speech was primarily dedicated to foreign affairs issues.
Early in his speech, though, the President referenced a letter he had received from a woman who very well might have been the voice of the LGBT community, as she wrote, ”We are strained, but hopeful.”
Read on at Metro Weekly.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found