{"id":20698,"date":"2016-06-25T11:14:44","date_gmt":"2016-06-25T18:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=20698"},"modified":"2016-06-25T11:14:44","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T18:14:44","slug":"president-obamas-weekly-address-designating-stonewall-national-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=20698","title":{"rendered":"President Obama&#8217;s Weekly Address : Designating Stonewall National Monument"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Hi everybody.  The story of America is a story of progress.  It\u2019s written by ordinary people who put their shoulders to the wheel of history to make sure that the promise of our founding applies not just to some of us \u2013 but to all of us.  Farmers and blacksmiths who chose revolution over tyranny.  Immigrants who crossed oceans and the Rio Grande.  Women who reached for the ballot, and scientists who shot for the moon.  The preachers, and porters, and seamstresses who guided us toward the mountaintop of freedom.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Pig8GbL9Y8c\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, we can mark that progress in special places \u2013 hallowed ground where history was written \u2013 places like Independence Hall.  Gettysburg.  Seneca Falls.  Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral.  The Edmund Pettus Bridge.  <\/p>\n<p>One of these special places is the Stonewall Inn.  Back in 1969, as a turbulent decade was winding down, the Stonewall Inn was a popular gathering place for New York City\u2019s LGBT community.  At the time, being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender was considered obscene, illegal \u2013 even a mental illness. <\/p>\n<p>One night, police raided the bar, and started arresting folks.  Raids like these were nothing new \u2013 but this time, the patrons had had enough. So they stood up, and spoke out, and over the course of the next several days, they refused to be silenced.  The riots became protests; the protests became a movement; the movement ultimately became an integral part of America.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past seven years, we\u2019ve seen achievements that would have been unimaginable to the folks who, knowingly or not, started the modern LGBT movement at Stonewall.  Today, all Americans are protected by a hate crimes law that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.  \u201cDon\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d is history.  Insurance companies can no longer turn you away because of who you are.  Transgender Americans are more visible than ever, helping to make our nation more inclusive and welcoming for all.  And one year ago this weekend, we lit the White House in every color \u2013 because in every state in America, you\u2019re now free to marry the person you love.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s still work to do.  As we saw two weeks ago in Orlando, the LGBT community still faces real discrimination, real violence, real hate.  So we can\u2019t rest.  We\u2019ve got to keep pushing for equality and acceptance and tolerance. <\/p>\n<p>But the arc of our history is clear \u2013 it\u2019s an arc of progress.  And a lot of that progress can be traced back to Stonewall.  So this week, I\u2019m designating the Stonewall National Monument as the newest addition to America\u2019s national parks system.  Stonewall will be our first national monument to tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights.  I believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country \u2013 the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us.  That we are stronger together.  That out of many, we are one.  That\u2019s what makes us the greatest nation on earth.  And it\u2019s what we celebrate at Stonewall \u2013 for our generation and for all those who come after us. <\/p>\n<p>Thanks everybody, and have a great weekend.<\/p>\n<p>###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Hi everybody. The story of America is a story of progress. It\u2019s written by ordinary people who put their shoulders to the wheel of history to make sure that the promise of our founding applies not just to some of us \u2013 but to all of us. Farmers and blacksmiths who chose revolution over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Fullscreen-capture-6252016-111212-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}