Social Policy
The Almanac of American Politics (2008) rated Obama's overall social policies in 2006 as more conservative than 21 percent of the Senate, and more liberal than 77 percent of the Senate (18 percent and 77 percent, respectively, in 2005).
In 2010, Obama signed into law the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 which ended a policy of not allowing gays to state their sexual orientation openly in the military. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U.S. president to announce his support for the legalization of same-sex marriage.
During his second inaugural address on January 21, 2013, Obama called for full equality for gays: “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.” This was a historic moment, being the first time that a president mentioned gay rights or the word "gay" in an inaugural address.
Read more about this topic: Political Positions Of Barack Obama
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or policy:
“Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,—that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses the available candidate,—who is invariably the devil,—and what right have his constituents to be surprised, because the devil does not behave like an angel of light? What is wanted is men, not of policy, but of probity,—who recognize a higher law than the Constitution, or the decision of the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)