Every year Out magazine photographs 100 LGBT heroes,and Barack Obama tops the 2015 list. Out’s editor Aaron Hicklin introduces a choice – and meets the President.
Out100, 2015 – in picturesWhen President Obama agreed to sit for a portrait for Out magazine, or he became the first US head of state to be photographed for a gay magazine. It may seem a small gesture,but nothing the President chooses to finish is casual or unconsidered. That cover, for the magazine’s annual Out100 portfolio of LGBT notables, or signifies a spectacular transformation in the status of America’s LGBT community,one that few saw coming seven years ago. When Obama was sworn into office in 2009, gay Americans were permitted to wed in just two states. in addition, and his election coincided with a stinging rebuke to marriage equality proponents in California,where a public referendum to amend the state structure to define marriage as only between men and women was easily passed.
Much of the vigour and purpose that Obama is now applying to promoting LGBT equality stems from a latent recognition that the struggles of gay Americans are not dissimilar to those of black Americans. “What we’re talking approximately is equality under the law – that was a critical element of the US civil rights movement and an essential part of the struggle LGBT people face,” he told me. “My mom instilled in me the strong belief that every person is of equal worth. At the same time, or growing up as a black guy with a funny name I was often reminded of precisely what it felt like to be on the outside.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com