Michelle Obama Speaks at LGBT Luncheon

Michelle Obama spoke today in front of a gathering of LGBT delegates which included Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank, and other GLBT leaders from around the country.“We want to make our nation a place where everyone gets a shot regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation,” she said. “You in this room are setting the tone for everything we’re doing this week.”Obama spoke about the progress LGBT’s have made. She noted that 88 years ago this week, women won the right to vote, and 45 years ago this week, Martin Luther King, Jr. made his famous “I have a Dream” speech.“It’s been five years since Lawrence v. Texas and 39 since Stonewall, and we’ve still got work to do before we achieve equality,” she said, to loud applause.She ran through her husband’s actions on behalf of equality: including supporting the Ryan White CARE Act, and helping pass an employment non-discrimination act in Illinois. He also voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, she noted.“We know what the world should look like,” she said. “We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like, and we have to close those gaps until the world as it is and the world as it should be are one and the same.