President Sign Anti LGBT Discrimination Legislation

President Barack Obama received a standing ovation and loud cheers in a packed East Room before he announced an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The President was joined on stage by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe,
Deputy Secretary of Labor Chris Lu, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Director Pat Shiu, Rev. Delman Coates, Rabbi David Saperstein and LGBT workplace equality advocates Kylar Broadus, Michael Carney, Anne Vonhof, and Faith Cheltenham.

“Many of you have worked for a long time to see this day coming. You organized, you spoke up, you signed petitions, you sent letters. I know because I got a lot of them. And now, thanks to your passionate advocacy and the irrefutable rightness of your cause, our government — government of the people, by the people, and for the people — will become just a little bit fairer.” the President said.

To which someone in the crowd shouted “Amen!”

“It doesn’t make much sense, but today in America, millions of our fellow citizens wake up and go to work with the awareness that they could lose their job, not because of anything they do or fail to do, but because of who they are — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender. And that’s wrong. We’re here to do what we can to make it right — to bend that arc of justice just a little bit in a better direction.” the President continued.

The President then signed the legislation, flanked by 2 blue screens that read “OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL” and handed a pen to each person on stage.

The order became effective immediately.

By William Pinyon
Source, White House Press Office