State of the Union: What It Meant for LGBT Americans

LGBT activists held a lengthy wish list of policy changes they hoped the president would support in his State of the Union address. The 2013 agenda that Barack Obama outlined on Tuesday included only some of them, and without clear requests to Congress.

Activists including the Human Rights Campaign had recently ramped up calls for the president to sign an executive order banning employment discrimination among federal contractors. Obama had argued that only passage of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act could really protect LGBT workers. But neither policy change got a direct mention among the 2013 agenda. The president came closest early in the speech while outlining a broad principle.

"It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country," he said, "the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love."

Minutes after the speech, activists were quick to point out that Americans can't "get ahead" no matter who they love.

http://www.advocate.com/politics/washington-dc/2013/02/12/state-union-what-it-meant-lgbt-americans