LGBT POV

The White House is hosting a live webcast today at 4:30 pm Eastern, 1:30pm Pacific time during which Tina Tchen, Deputy Assistant to the President & Director of the Office of Public Engagement will answer questions on women’s issues. Go to WhiteHouse.gov for the webcast. The 30-minute interview will be conducted by BlogHer and the topics will include “honoring the historic moment of the 19th Amendment and celebrating the 90th anniversary of a women’s right to vote.” This photograph shows women suffragists marching in Washington DC on March 3, 1913. Please visit this site to learn more about Lucy Burns who was arrested for protesting at the White House. Also go here to see photos from the City of West Hollywood’s commemoration of Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 17.

On the BlogHer website, they note that: “The suffragettes — Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, and many more — rallied, marched, were imprisoned, starved themselves in order to have a say in the way our government votes. The final voting by the Senate was after the National Women’s Party urged voters not to vote for anti-suffrage candidates.”

Although the 19th Amendment finally passed – not all women were allowed to vote due to laws upholding racism. Ida B. Wells, BlogHer notes, “formed the first Black women’s suffrage club in 1913 and created a stir when she refused to stay in the back of the lines during the March on Washington.” (Poet Maya Angelou talks about the women’s movement on this video.)

There was a temporary big splash in the HIV/AIDS community last month when President Obama’s Office of National AIDS Strategy finally released its long-awaited plan on how to deal with the on-going – and in some areas, increasing – epidemic of HIV/AIDS.

Last Friday, Aug. 20, AIDS Czar Jeff Crowley blogged on the White House’s website about the Administration’s continuing commitment to prioritizing HIV/AIDS. He announced an amendment to the President’s FY 2011 budget request being sent to Congress to increase HIV/AIDS funding by $65 million – $35 million increase for HIV prevention as called for in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and “a $30 million increase for State AIDS drug assistance programs to respond to the ongoing crisis States are facing in operating these essential programs.”

Crowley also talked about President Obama’s July 13th remarks about the Strategy. But he doesn’t mention how Obama was briefly interrupted by Housing Works CEO Charles King – who took a lot of flack for shouting out. King recently posted an editorial explaining why he thinks the Strategy is a failure. Perhaps King and other HIV/AIDS activists will have a chance to discuss their frustrations during two upcoming webinars sponsored by the grassroots Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy. Please click inside for more on all of this.

NBC is reporting live now – watch MSNBC. Brian Jenkins asks Richard Engel who right now says “The Last Patrol” will cross the border in about half hour. His reporting is the official Pentagon announcement of troop withdraw. No more combats missions; though some soldiers staying for training.Last troop – 440 troops, per Engel embedded with Striker Brigade. Rachel Maddow reporting live from Baghad now. Side bar: Engel is broadcasting from the “Bloom-mobile.”

UPDATE: Just watched the last combat troop cross into Kuwait, 4:20 Pacific time. That’s March 2003- to-moments ago.

Engels: “The beginning of the end.” About 50,000 troops remain as trainers, desk jobs.

Lt. DeWitt from San Jose – he watched the war start when he was 17; volunteered know he’d be deployed to Iraq; “proud” of the “good job” his unit has done.

Some combat troops coming home, then some going to Afghanistan. Rent the movies “Coming Home” and “First Blood” to understand some of the PTSD that some of the troops might experience….We need to help them.

I’ll have a more thoughtful response later.

UPDATE: Admiral Mike Mullen is on Facebook (pictured) and four hours ago – about two hours before the formal withdraw – he was posting about sending out DADT surveys to military spouses and the need to fill them out. The two responses on his front page are positive.

UPDATE: LETTER FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA ON THE WHITE HOUSE BLOG:

Ending the War in Iraq

Posted by Katelyn Sabochik on August 18, 2010 at 01:00 PM EDT

Earlier today, President Obama sent a message to the White House email list about ending our combat mission and drawing down the number of troops in Iraq.  Check out the email below.  You can sign up to receive periodic updates from the President and other senior administration officials here.

Good afternoon,

Shortly after taking office, I put forward a plan to end the war in Iraq responsibly. Today, I’m pleased to report that — thanks to the extraordinary service of our troops and civilians in Iraq — our combat mission will end this month, and we will complete a substantial drawdown of our troops.
 
Over the last 18 months, over 90,000 U.S. troops have left Iraq. By the end of this month, 50,000 troops will be serving in Iraq. As Iraqi Security Forces take responsibility for securing their country, our troops will move to an advise-and-assist  role. And, consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, all of our troops will be out of Iraq by the end of next year. Meanwhile, we will continue to build a strong partnership with the Iraqi people with an increased civilian commitment and diplomatic effort.
 
A few weeks ago, men and women from one of the most deployed brigades in the U.S. Army, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, returned home from Iraq. The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden were at Fort Drum to welcome the veterans home and spoke about their personal experiences as a military family:

Our commitment to our troops doesn’t end once they come home — it’s only the beginning.  Part of ending a war responsibly is meeting our responsibility to the men and women who have fought it. Our troops and their families have made tremendous sacrifices to keep our nation safe and secure, and as a nation we have a moral obligation to serve our veterans as well as they have served us. 
 
That’s why we’re building a 21st century Department of Veterans Affairs.  We’ve made one of the largest percentage increase in the VA’s budget in 30 years, and we’re dramatically increasing funding for veterans’ health across the board. In particular, we’re delivering unprecedented resources to treat signature wounds of today’s wars—Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. 
 
Our sacred trust to take care of our veterans goes beyond simply healing the wounds incurred in battle. We must ensure that when our veterans leave the Armed Forces, they have the opportunities they need to further their education and support their families.  Through the Post-9/11 GI Bill, some 300,000 veterans and families members have pursued a college degree.  Others are taking advantage of job training and placement programs. 
 
My Administration will continue to do our part to support the brave men and women in uniform that have sacrificed so much.  But supporting our troops and their families is not just the job of the Federal Government; it’s the responsibility of all Americans.
 
As we mark this milestone in the Iraq war and our troops continue to move out of Iraq, I hope you’ll join me in thanking them, and all of our troops and military families, for their service. 
 
Sincerely,
President Barack Obama

President Obama flew into Los Angeles for a relatively brief Hollywood fundraiser Monday night at the home of “West Wing” executive producer John Wells. The event, which also featured short remarks by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Chris Van Hollen, raised $1 million for the DCCC, which is trying to prevent the Republicans from taking back control of Congress. Entertainment industry couples paid $30,500 for a reception, a photo with the president and dinner – which Obama skipped.

Variety’s Ted Johnson reports at Wilshire and Washington that Obama was well-received during his 30-minute extemporaneous remarks focusing on the economy.

“One attendee, who did not want to be identified, described Obama relaxed, gracious and even a bit gregarious, more emotional and not as cerebral. The event did help change sentiments, whether they be cynicism over Democratic chances in the fall or frustration at the White House on various issues. “It gave people a boost,” the attendee said.”

LAObserved has the pool reports.  While Obama talked about rewarding Democrats for the “tough votes” they’ve taken on a number of difficult issues, it is interesting to note that he did not mention the entertainment industry nor net neutrality nor “climate change” – all big issues in Los Angeles. And on the day when the LGBT community and the legal worlds were obsessed with the 9^th Circuit’s stay of Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling on Prop 8 – there was nary a word uttered about the “tough votes” congressional Democrats have taken on LGBT issues.

What DOES have everyone talking in LA, however, is how the Obama visit tied up the already grueling rush hour traffic for hours on the Westside. Check out this report from TheWrap which is representative of other reports.

Please click inside for a transcript of Obama’s remarks to the Hollywood crowd.

False Choice: Obama’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy vs ABC’s “The View”

By guest blogger Nii-Quartelai Quartey

Change without a plan is change without a chance.

Like the thousands of other HIV/AIDS activist across the United States, I was proud to see President Obama and his Administration make good on a campaign promise to change the way we fight against HIV/AIDS with the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy in the history of the U.S. epidemic

The goals of this inaugural National HIV/AIDS Strategy include:

1. Reducing HIV Infections by 25%
2. Lowering the rate of HIV transmission by 30%
3. Increasing the number of infected people who know their status by 10%
4. Increasing the number of people accessing care within three months of diagnosis by 30%
5. Increase the proportion of gay and bisexual men, Blacks, and Latinos with undetectable viral loads by 20%

According to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy Executive Summary: “In 1995, 44 percent of the general public indicated that HIV/AIDS was the most urgent health problem facing the Nation, compared to only 6 percent in March 2009.” I can’t help but firmly agree with the 44% of the general public, especially in light of the fact that HIV/AIDS stigma, lack of quality and affordable health care, and poverty most severely impact the lives of African-Americans.

After reading through the executive summary of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy I kept asking myself this simple question about the largest risk-group in the community most impacted by HIV/AIDS in the United States: Do African-American heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men have a chance to be saved with this strategy?

Please click inside to read the rest of Nil-Quartelai’s essay – and what he has to say about the controversy at “The View.”

‘
There’s a lot going on at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, which opened to fanfare and demonstrations on Sunday.  The fanfare includes reports of new scientific advances in HIV vaccine research, including the partial efficacy of a vaccine regimen and the discovery of new broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV.

The demonstrations included a march and “die-in” disrupting opening ceremonies.  (Photo courtesy Riekhavoc on Flickr) One issue was the failure of President Obama to provide sufficient new funding in the just-released National AIDS Strategy – a point former President Bill Clinton took issue with Monday. Here’s an excerpt from the Examiner:

“I completely understand why the advocates for greater AiIDS funding have loudly protested, but I do not think it is either fair or accurate to say the president has gone back on his promises, as if it was a callous walking away.”

Carl Schmid,
 Deputy Executive Director of
 The AIDS Institute, emailed me his response:

“I think AIDS activism is always alive and well at the International AIDS conferences as it should be. I would be shocked if there wasn’t a demonstration and hope it continues. I disagree with what Bill Clinton said today. We need demonstrations AND working the halls of congress. It shouldn’t be one or the other.”

Conference organizers have produced an easy to navigate website for the event – which runs from July 18-23. The Kaiser Family Foundation is the official webcaster of several of the panels – including this hour-long panel from a global perspective on “Is Activism Dead?” Please click inside for a number of press releases from different groups announcing news and opinions.

Political blogger Rod McCollum reports from the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna   (Twitter hashtag #AIDS2010) that a major protest by hundreds of HIV-positive activists disrupted the conference opening by staging a massive protest and “die-in.” He reports:

“The activists were calling attention to the decreased funding of HIV/AIDS programs by the G8 leaders, as well as the “slowing and scaling back their commitments toward Universal Access to HIV care, treatment and prevention.” No arrests were reported.”

Last Tuesday the Obama Administration’s Office of National AIDS Policy finally unveiled it’s long awaited National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which some AIDS activists such as Daniel Fredrick O’Neill appreciated.  In his report, Rod points out the administration’s shifted attention to “HIV prevention efforts at the highest-risk population—including men who have sex with men (MSM) and black Americans,” while noting that the strategy entails “no new additional spending.”

The Obama plan was also a subject of protest during the “die-in.”

Rod says the conference protest “mirrors the massive May 13 New York City action when hundreds of activists blocked traffic and laid down on Madison Avenue to protest the Obama Administration’s record on HIV/AIDS funding.”

The protests sound reminiscent to me of the massive protests ACT UP staged in New York City on Wall Street and Broadway, in Washington DC and Maryland (HHS, FDA) and Los Angeles (protesting Reagan and Bush) and previous disruptions of international AIDS conferences.

But it’s too soon to tell if this new activism will be sustained.

Rod reports that there are more photos from this protest at Riekhavoc’s Flickr …

(Hat tip to Rex Wockner and Joe.My.God).

President Obama released a greeting today to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela on the occasion of the great man’s 92^nd birthday. (See photos of Mandela celebrating with his family on the Nelson Mandela Foundation site.)

On behalf of the United States, I wish Nelson Mandela a very happy 92nd birthday. We are grateful to continue to be blessed with his extraordinary vision, leadership, and spirit. And we strive to build upon his example of tolerance, compassion and reconciliation. I also join the American people, the South African people, the United Nations, and the world in celebrating the first annual Nelson Mandela International Day. I encourage us all to heed the call to engage in some form of service to others, in honor of the 67 years of sacrifice and service Madiba gave to us. We strive to follow his example of what it means to truly give back to our communities, our nations, and our world.

The example we all strive to follow is his political activism opposing South African apartheid, leading to his arrest and conviction in 1962, with a sentence of life in prison. Upon his release on Feb. 11 1990, Mandela remarkably forgave his captors and lead his country through an unbelievable process of reconciliation and the first-ever multi-racial democratic process, which also elected him president from 1994-1999.

Mandela included sexual orientation in his Inaugural speech in Cape Town on May 9, 1994, a plank later written into the South African constitution:

“In 1980s the African National Congress was still setting the pace, being the first major political formation in South Africa to commit itself firmly to a Bill of Rights, which we published in November 1990. These milestones give concrete expression to what South Africa can become. They speak of a constitutional, democratic, political order in which, regardless of colour, gender, religion, political opinion or sexual orientation, the law will provide for the equal protection of all citizens.
 They project a democracy in which the government, whomever that government may be, will be bound by a higher set of rules, embodied in a constitution, and will not be able govern the country as it pleases.”

Today “apartheid” has been relegated to the history books. But many of us remember that cruel, total Nazi-like control the white Afrikaaners held over blacks and other people of color. To understand that context, please read this BBC report or take some time and watch this film about the June 16, 1976   youth-led riots in Soweto. I worked at CBS News at the time and I remember filmed horror that never made it to the evening news. I also remember white police officers unapologetically claiming they had “no choice” but to fire into the fleeing schoolchildren. By the end of the riots Reuters reported more than 500 killed (many youth shot and trampled), with thousands wounded. It took global outrage and sanctions to eventually stop apartheid and yield heroes such as Nelson Mandela.

Here is a BBC filmed report about Mandela’s release from prison:

Sunday, March 21, the House passed the healthcare reform bill with much nail-biting and fanfare.  Everyone at our small gathering stopped and watched as Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked about the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and cited a letter Kennedy wrote to Obama saying that “Access to health care is the great unfinished business of our society…..At stake are not just the details of policy but…the character of our country.” Pelosi then said: “Americans will look back on this day as one which we honored the character of our country and honored our commitment to our nation’s founders for a commitment to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’”

No doubt Democrats will be referring to those gleaming words as they seek to retain their majority in Congress. Additionally, with sagging polls numbers, the healthcare reform package, minus the grievous amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak to restrict insurance coverage for abortions, is considered a major accomplishment for the Obama administration.

But just as the Justice Department legal briefs in the federal lawsuits against the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell startled LGBT rights advocates for their reliance on right wing arguments, a new declaration issued Monday by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services has the ACLU and Planned Parenthood sending up urgent alerts. One birth control advocate says the HHS proposal, “in a spectacular act of complicity with the religious right,” now seeks to define contraception as abortion.

The National HIV/AIDS Strategy: A Milestone in the History of the Epidemic

By Guest Blogger Dan O’Neill

Member, DC HIV Prevention Community Planning Group

During his 2008 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama stated, “If elected, during my first year in office, I will develop and implement a comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) that includes all federal agencies.” He continued, “That strategy will reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities.” But with still no word on the matter after the first 100 days of his presidency, advocates soon took to the streets to pressure Obama to make good on his promise.

Well, he has, with the July 14 release of the final strategy and implementation plan for tackling the domestic HIV/AIDS crisis. Although members of the HIV/AIDS community had much to celebrate on Tuesday, many remained frustrated that the plan took so long to pull together and fell so far short on adequately addressing some of the most urgent HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention needs that America now faces.

A year ago I sat across the table from Jeffrey Crowley (pictured here with President Obama in the Oval Office), the newly minted Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), charged with the daunting task of spearheading the creation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAD). Crowley listened while my HIV Policy class presented him with our ideas on how we thought the plan should be structured.

At the time he was saddled with this tremendous responsibility, he was still sorely under-staffed at ONAP and already behind schedule according to many community advocates who had waited years for such a plan; so it’s a wonder that in just over a year he and his team were able to synthesize such a thorough and comprehensive strategy and implementation plan. And for rising to that challenge, they should be commended.

This undertaking marks the first successful attempt at such a national strategy, after previous failures and false starts. The most recent attempt under the Clinton administration failed to be implemented and went largely unnoticed by much of the community. As a result, this time around, Crowley was able to build on the lessons learned from the past as well as from the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In particular, this time ONAP went into the community to ask the front-line advocates, service providers, and HIV-positive individuals their thoughts on what the strategy should include. Undoubtedly, this open-community process helped to establish the buy-in needed for this strategy to come to fruition and for people to actually pay attention to it.

Thus, having met a key “ask” of HIV/AIDS advocates during the 2008 presidential campaign by successfully raising the profile of HIV/AIDS on the national stage, the foundation to make some significant inroads into the fight against this epidemic has been laid, that is, assuming that we get the implementation right.

Please click inside to read Dan’s analysis of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

The White House released its National AIDS Strategy National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and accompanying NHAS Federal Implementation Plan on Tuesday. The CDC estimates that approximately 56,000 people become infected with HIV each year and more than 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV.  Secretary Sebelius also announced that $30 million of the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention Fund will be dedicated to the implementation of the NHAS.

“We can’t afford complacency – not when in the ten minutes I’ve been talking to you, another American has just contracted HIV,” Secretary Sebelius said.  “That’s why our strategy calls for aggressive efforts to educate Americans about how dangerous this disease still is and the steps they can take to protect themselves and their loved ones.”

AIDS Healthcare Foundation was not pleased, saying AIDS programs are “starved” under the plan and that President Obama has failed to lead on combatting HIV/AIDS. More reaction is expected as HIV/AIDS activists consider the new strategy, which some say appears to be modeled on the international plan under President George W. Bush.

President Obama also released a Memorandum on the Implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (click inside). Go to www.AIDS.gov and www.whitehouse.gov/onap for more information and resources.

Later, President Obama spoke for about 20 minutes at reception in East Room for HIV/AIDS activists. Please click inside for a complete transcript of his remarks.

Perhaps it’s because the New York Times just came out with a big report on on how the economic crisis is impacting the federal AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) or because of the volume of complaints following Tuesday’s national conference call with the President’s Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS (PACHA) on ADAP – but PACHA Chair Dr. Helene Gayle has set up another conference call with apparently plenty of time for public comment. Her letter, posted as a comment on my story on the conference call, is inside, with conference call information.

I have sent an email to Melvin Joppy at HHS asking: Will PACHA members be on the call? What is the point of the call, other than to log comments?  Is there any mechanism to address the comments if someone brings up a point that hasn’t been considered?  What is the process for the Resolution to get to Sec. Sebelius and President Obama? How long will that take and where is it now?

I will update this post when I receive his answers.UPDATE: Melvin Joppy replies: Yes, PACHA members be on the Friday conference call. The rest of his response is inside.

BJ Cavnor was so angry at the abrupt end to Tuesday’s Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) tele-conference call about AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, he posted on Prevention Justice’s live-blogging that it “reminds me of the Regan (sic) years.”

The call actually started off with an alarm sounded by Dr. Deborah Parham Hopson, associate administrator for HIV/AIDS at HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) who said that she had never seen such a rapid increase in the numbers of people with HIV/AIDS needing access to healthcare and medications. She said that 1924 people are now on waiting lists in 11 states.

That’s an increase of 184 people in just one week from the 1,840 people the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) reported on June 25. Just over one month before that, on May 6, there were 1056 individuals on waiting lists in 10 states.

Hopson cited more HIV testing, getting people into care and retaining them, as well as the budget crisis in many states, the “economic downturn” and increases in unemployment as reasons for the increase.  She said HRSA is “working closely” with states to help people get access to pharmaceutical patient assistance programs and she discussed funding appropriations such as the $1.14 billion allocated on April 5.

The apparent purpose of the call was for PACHA members to vote on a “Resolution Regarding the Timely Access to Life-Saving Care and Treatment.”

Please click inside to read more about the Resolution and what happened when the PACHA operator shut down the call before community members had their chance to speak.

There’s no doubt that President Obama is under a lot of pressure – we see Tuesday how the Dow Jones dipped, raising serious concerns about whether Europe’s economic troubles are lapping at America’s shores. Additionally, the military is undergoing a profound change as they deal with and possibly re-think the strategy in Afghanistan. Some LGBTs want Obama critics such as Richard Socarides and David Mixner to back off,  give Obama some breathing room and for heavens sake, thank him for what he’s done for LGBTs already.  OK – thank you, Mr. President. No one wants Obama to fail. We only want Obama to be who he promised us he’d be. Because for now, many of us feel like the poor hungry orphan kid in “Oliver” reaching our empty bowl up and saying, “Please, sir. I want some more.” The point is – we shouldn’t have to beg for full equality – equality that is already ours but is being denied us. And acknowledging that denial without “fierce” advocacy makes one complicit in the denial. As Gloria Nieto explains here, we are in double jeopardy because of that inequality – which is unfair, unjust and unAmerican.

Poverty is a queer issue

By Gloria Nieto

Over the weekend, Pride weekend in many parts of the world, I visited with old friends.  What was completely astonishing to me was the state of poverty that we find ourselves in right now.

All of us are well over 50.  We are the only ones to lose our home at this point.  The other friends are barely holding on.  Of the four of us out the other night at the Egyptian museum, only one of us has a job.  The other three hobos, I mean homos, have all been gainfully employed all our adult lives.  One has owned and operated several businesses over time.  Her unemployment just ran out on Friday.  She is one of the 1.3 million who were dropped that day.

My unemployment ran out back in April.  No income since then so my spouse is trying to keep both of us afloat….

Please click inside for the rest of Gloria’s essay.

A Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy posted a press release suggesting that HIV/AIDS advocates listen in on the meeting of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) meeting being conducted via telephone conference call on Tuesday, June 29 at 4:00 p.m. EST, 1:00p.m. Pacific. The call is expected to last about an hour. President Obama is expected to soon release a comprehensive, five-year plan of action to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S.

To help prepare community members for the announcement, the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy has developed a document, which offers core concepts for communications about the Strategy and ideas on how to leverage its release to garner local and national attention to urgent issues in our communities.

PACHA Call-In Meeting Info:

CONFERENCE CALL: Domestic: 888-455-2653. International: 1-210-839-8485. Access code: 158777.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Melvin Joppy, Committee Manager, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, at melvin.joppy@hhs.gov.

NEWS & ANALYSIS: Members of the Prevention Justice Alliance will be blogging live about the meeting’s proceedings at www.preventionjustice.org.

In Rose Garden comments Wednesday, President Obama says he was not personally insulted by the offensive remarks from Gen. McCrystal to Rolling Stone magazine.  “But war is bigger than any one man or woman” and McChrystal’s conduct undermined civilian control, erodes trust for teamwork and does not meet the strict code of conduct that applies to newly enlisted privates to the generals who command them. Obama said he welcomes debate but not dissent. Finally, Obama said this is a “change in personnel but is not a change in policy.”

UPDATE: PLEASE CLICK INSIDE TO READ THE COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT OF OBAMA’S REMARKS.

NBC News’ Richard Engel says Petraeus is a “rock star” and the troops will welcome the change.

Sen. Lieberman says, “We’ve just witnessed an historically significant moment” in which Obama displayed “a decisive show of presidential leadership.”

Last March, Petraeus said on CNN that he was on board with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:

“My thinking on this matter, I’ve been wrestling with this. A lot of us have. We’ve done a lot of personal soundings. We’ve looked at the 25 or so countries, including Australia, UK, Canada, Israel. Some pretty good militaries that have all integrated, if you will, gays and lesbians into their militaries, but had very sensible and pragmatic policies. I think that has been the key to the success of their efforts.”

Here he gives qualified support for the repeal:

The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld just posted her fine report on the event at the White House with interviews from across the political spectrum, including a 26 year old activist from a St. Louis-based youth organization who is angry that there hasn’t been more “blanket support” for LGBT issues. Please read her report. Meanwhile, here’s President Obama. Decide for yourself.

President Obama was received with applause and cheers as he entered the White House reception for LGBT Pride Month. He spoke for about 15 minutes about promises he’s made to LGBT activists – looking very present, despite having a day filled with breaking news about Gen. Stanley McCrystal, who he may force to resign as the commander in charge of US troops in Afghanistan over remarks the general made to Rolling Stone magazine. Please click inside for the transcript of Obama’s remarks, but here’s an excerpt:

“Now, look, the fact that we’ve got activists here is important because it’s a reminder that change never comes — or at least never begins in Washington.  It begins with acts of compassion -– and sometimes defiance -– across America.  It begins when ordinary people –- out of love for a mother or a father, son or daughter, or husband or wife -– speak out against injustices that have been accepted for too long.  And it begins when these impositions of conscience start opening hearts that had been closed, and when we finally see each other’s humanity, whatever our differences.

Now, this struggle is as old as America itself.  It’s never been easy.  But standing here, I am hopeful.  One year ago, in this room, we marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall protests.  (Applause.)  Some of you were here, and you may remember that I pledged then that even at a time when we faced enormous challenges both on the economy and in our foreign policy, that we would not put aside matters of basic equality.  And we haven’t.

We’ve got a lot of hard work that we still have to do, but we can already point to extraordinary progress that we’ve made over the past year on behalf of Americans who are gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke Tuesday at the U.S. State Department in recognition of LGBT Pride Month. Please click inside for her full remarks, as well as the shorter remarks from Attorney General Eric Holder. But here’s a sample of what Clinton said:

“[T]he purpose of this occasion is to recognize with gratitude the contributions made by LGBT members of the State Department family every single day.  We celebrate the progress that is being made here in our own country toward advancing the rights of LGBT Americans, and we recognize that there is still a lot of work to be done but that we are moving together in the right direction.  And we reaffirm our commitment to protect and advance the rights of all human beings, as Cheryl just said, of members of the LGBT community around the world.

[cut]

But think about what’s happening to people as we speak today.  Men and women are harassed, beaten, subjected to sexual violence, even killed, because of who they are and whom they love.   Some are driven from their homes or countries, and many who become refugees confront new threats in their countries of asylum.  In some places, violence against the LGBT community is permitted by law and inflamed by public calls to violence; in others, it persists insidiously behind closed doors.

These dangers are not “gay” issues.  This is a human rights issue.  (Applause.)  Just as I was very proud to say the obvious more than 15 years ago in Beijing that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, well, let me say today that human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights, once and for all.  (Applause.)”

President Obama will host a LGBT Pride Month event at the White House late Tuesday, where he is expected to deliver brief remarks.  Vice President Biden is expected to attend, as well. Invited guests include elected officials, state and local community leaders, and LGBT Americans from communities across the country — including many youth — who have stood up for equality, according to the White House.

The White House is expected to webcast the reception live at 6:00pm Eastern, 3:00PM Pacific here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live

UPDATE: – Chris Geidner, Senior Political Writer at Metro Weekly will be tweeting out of the event at twitter.com/chrisgeidner and twitter.com/metroweekly. Kerry Eleveld from The Advocate and Chris Johnson from the Washington Blade are also covering. Chris is twitter.com/cjagenda.