OBAMA WILL FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS

US Presidential candidate Barack Obama will fight for gay equality, his wife Michelle said in a speech last week.

Obama was speaking at a New York fund-raising function for a Democratic Party gay group; the Democratic National Committee’s Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council.

“Barack believes that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where together we work to reverse discriminatory laws,” she said to the audience.

The fundraiser took place in Pride month in the US, and just days before the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which is recognised as representing the beginning of the Gay Pride movement.

Obama noted the event’s timing saying that, “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 that her husband stands for full family and adoption rights for LGBT people and supports the repeal of the US military’s ban on gay and lesbian personnel.

Although Barack Obama has said he personally supports gay unions but not gay marriage, she said that he opposes federal interference in individual states’ right to decide to legalise gay marriage.

Her speech was met with a standing ovation from the 200 strong audience.