Michelle Obama and NY Governor David Paterson’s wife Michelle spoke to 200 donors at the DNC’s Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council dinner last night at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, and event which raised $1.3 million, according to organizers. Obama received most of the attention from the mainstream press, but you can see a very brief clip of both of them speaking, AFTER THE JUMP…
Reuters reports: “[Michelle Obama] said [Barack] supported a complete repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which only recognizes marriages between men and women and upholds states’ rights not to honor same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. He also opposes a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy toward gays in the U.S. military and was against a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, she added. He supports full family and adoption rights for gay and lesbian couples and believes the federal government should not stand in the way of states that opt for domestic partnerships, civil unions or civil marriage, she said. The Illinois senator opposes same-sex marriage. ‘Barack believes that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws like DOMA and ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,” she said. ‘The world as it is should be one that rejects discrimination of all kinds.'”
The AP adds: “Obama [also] drew a connection between the struggles for gay rights and civil rights. ‘We are all only here because of those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in the pursuit of a more perfect union,’ she said at the event, held days before the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots between gays and New York police, and the city’s annual gay pride parade.”
Watch a report from FOX5 New York that I’ve clipped, AFTER THE JUMP…
