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President Obama Talks About The First Influential Gay Person In His Life

“I’m not sure who the first openly gay person I met was, but Dr. Lawrence Goldyn, one of my college professors, is a man who stands out to me. I took his class freshman year at Occidental. I was probably 18 years old — Lawrence was one of the younger professors — and we became good friends. He went out of his way to advise lesbian, gay, and transgender students at Occidental, and keep in mind, this was 1978. That took a lot of courage, a lot of confidence in who you are and what you stand for. I got to recognize Lawrence last year at our Pride Month reception at the White House, and thank him for influencing the way I think about so many of these issues.”

— President Obama in an interview with Out magazine, in which he’s named “Ally of the Year”Barack Obama 05

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13 Comments

  1. Makes me wonder if there’ll ever be any public acknowledgement of gays in Nigeria in any official capacity, maybe in the year 2515 … When the present generation’s great-great grandchildren’s great-great grandchildren’ grandchildren will hold office ***rolls eyes longingly towards Washington DC***

  2. I swear, when you think about how far Nigeria has to go in LGBT issues, you just wonder what you’re doing. No matter how hard you try to live your life so you don’t blip any radars, a day will come when you will have to make a choice….. Freedom to be you or society’s expectations. At what point will we get here?

  3. Even tho we have some parliamentarians who would want to support LGBT policies. Fear of the unknown won’t allow them.its gonna take a big break like some sorta revolution for LGBT to gain stand in dis sicko country. Pifffffff

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