Savor the Moment

Expectations about how far and how fast President Obama can escort gay Americans down the road to full equality are so high that it's easy to underappreciate reaching major milestones along the way.

But savor this: The president of the United States — for the first time ever — has signed protections for gay and transgender Americans into law.

The measure expanding the nation's hate crime law was tucked into a large, unrelated bill. But Obama didn't want the historic moment to pass unacknowledged, so he hosted a special reception Oct. 28 to mark the bittersweet achievement of passing legislation named for two men killed by mindless hatred.

The president noted that "as a nation we've come far on the journey towards a more perfect union. And today we've taken another step forward."

One very important step.

"At root, this isn't just about our laws; this is about who we are as a people," Obama said of adding sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability to a law dating from 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson signed federal protections against crimes based on racial or religious hatred in the wake of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"This is about whether we value one another — whether we embrace our differences," Obama continued. "We have for centuries strived to live up to our founding ideal, of a nation where all are free and equal and able to pursue their own version of happiness. ... We have endured and grown stronger and fairer and freer. And at every turn, we've made progress not only changing laws but by changing hearts, by our willingness to walk in another's shoes, by our capacity to love and accept even in the face of rage and bigotry."

Beside Obama at the White House were relatives of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., whose brutal 1998 murders intensified the push for tougher hate crimes laws.

Shepard was a 21-year-old college student just getting a foothold in life when he was tied to a Wyoming fence and beaten so savaged that he died later of brain trauma.

Byrd, a 49-year-old black man, was chained by his ankles to the back of a pickup truck in Texas and dragged to his death.

The new law, the first federal acknowledgement of transgender people, sends a loud message that in America hate-motivated crimes will not be tolerated. For nearly two decades, the FBI has included anti-gay attacks in the hate crimes it tracks, thanks to the Hate Crimes Statistics Act that President George H.W. Bush signed.

Including victims targeted because of their sexual orientation was so controversial back in 1990 that Congress ironically used that measure to take cruel swipes at those of us who're gay, including stating, "Nothing in this Act shall be construed, nor shall any funds be appropriated to carry out the purpose of the Act be used to promote or encourage homosexuality."

The difference between that sort of animosity and Obama's respectful, inclusive tone was not lost on 84-year-old reception guest Frank Kameny, who picketed the White House for gay rights in 1965: "It's a start in a long list of things to come from President Obama. It's just the start."

Openly gay Rep. Tammy Baldwin feels similarly optimistic. "Having the first civil rights measure protecting the (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community signed into law really has a bigger impact than one law alone. It has a transformative effect," she said.

Baldwin predicts that "going forward, we will see much more rapid movement" on bills to ban anti-LGBT job discrimination, repeal the military ban on openly gay soldiers and extend benefits to gay federal workers' partners.

A milestone isn't a finish line, but gay and gay-friendly Americans can take heart from the direction Obama is already leading the nation.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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