Subject: TASK FORCE REACTION TO INAUGURAL ADDRESS
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 97 16:51:15 EST

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PRESS RELEASE

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
2320 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009-2702
http://www.ngltf.org       email: [email-masked]
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TASK FORCE REACTION TO INAUGURAL ADDRESS:  GAYS CHALLENGED TO "MOLD THE EVENTS 
THAT ARE THE RAW MATERIAL OF HISTORY"

Contact:
Tracey Conaty
[email-masked]
202-332-6483 x3303
Pager: 800-757-6476

Washington D.C., January 21, 1997... 

In his inaugural address, President Clinton 
challenged the American people to end the plague of prejudice in America: a 
theme of great significance to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.  
 While the President  focused on racism and sexism, the message resonated 
profoundly for many in the lgbt community.  
 
Below is a statement from NGLTF executive director Kerry Lobel on the 
President's address and the challenge facing the lgbt community.  Lobel 
emphasized the action that must accompany the hopes and vigilance of lesbian, 
gay, bisexual and transgender people over  the next four years.  Lobel charged 
the community with making history instead of witnessing  it.  In her statement, 
Lobel characterizes the mood of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force as 
hopeful and its mission as formidable as it gears up for the next four years.  

History is not the President's to make alone.  History is written by all 
Americans each day, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans. 

Whether through apathy or activism, the lgbt community has a vital role in the 
countdown to the new century.  It is up to each of us, individually and 
collectively, to decide whether we will merely read the history that will be 
written or whether we, lgbt people, will mold the events that are the raw 
material of history.

It is a great day when a President, in his inaugural address, condemns "the 
divide of race [that] has been America's constant curse."  It is a great day, 
when a newly reelected President, proclaims,"prejudice and contempt cloaked in 
the pretense of religious or political convictions are no different."   We look 
toward the day when the President confronts homophobia as part of the prejudices 
that plague our nation.

For the next four years the job of the lgbt community is not just to hope for 
equality, but to act decisively for it.  The use of sodomy laws to criminalize 
our love and our lives, the obstacles to our right to parent and create families 
as we choose, the actions of bigots to keep us from working because we are gay, 
lesbian, bisexual, or transgender will not end because Bill Clinton made it so. 

They will end because we made it so.  The next four years are our opportunity to 
change the landscape of the country.  The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force 
will mobilize and organize so that the next millennium marks a new and profound 
chapter in our struggle for liberation.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is a progressive organization that has 
supported grassroots organizing and pioneered in national advocacy since 1973.  
Since its inception, NGLTF has been at the forefront of virtually every major 
initiative for lesbian and gay rights.  In all its efforts, NGLTF helps to 
strengthen the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movement at the state 
level while connecting these activities to a national vision for change.

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