Thursday at a memorial in Orlando, FL for the victims of last weekend’s mass shooting terror attack, President Barack Obama said that “hatred toward people because of sexual orientation feeds into “something very dangerous in this world.”
Obama said, “This was an act of terrorism but it was also an act of hate. This was an attack on the LGBT community. Americans were targeted because we’re a country that has learned to welcome everyone, no matter who you are, or who you love. And hatred toward people because of sexual orientation regardless of where it comes from—that’s a betrayal of what’s best in us. Joe and I were talking on the way over here. You can’t break up the world into us and them and denigrate and express hatred toward groups because of the color of their skin or their faith or their sexual orientation and not feed something very dangerous in this world. So if there was ever a moment for all of us to reflect and reaffirm our most basic beliefs that everybody counts and everybody has dignity, now is the time. It’s a good time for all of us to reflect on how we treat each other and insist on respect and quality for every human being. We have to end discrimination and violence against our brothers and sisters in the the LGBT community, other and around the world where they are routinely persecuted. We have to challenge the oppression of women, wherever it occurred, here or overseas. It’s only us, Americans.”
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