Shivvers. This is how it should be.

While no American should need “extra” protection, it’s a sad fact that thousands of Americans do need it—and we all deserve an equal chance at the pursuit of happiness, and living the American Dream—which is, at its heart, about opportunity, not mine vs. yours, elitism or exclusivity.

In other news, via Reddit, here’s tomorrow’s likely headline:

Join the Truth Team: http://www.barackobama.com/TruthTeam

Four years ago Barack Obama promised to protect all Americans from hate crimes. As president he made hate crime legislation a priority. He signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act so that no American is excluded from the protection of our nation’s laws.

~

Why does it matter than he’s giving voice to equality?

Also via Reddit:

The POTUS supporting equal marriage rights is a first, and a sign of how far we’ve come on the issue.

Does it matter in concrete terms? Here’s some evidence that it does: ~20% swing among black Americans in MD and PA toward supporting marriage equality since Obama’s announcement. Having such a high profile champion of gay rights does make a difference. And other high-ranking Democrats (Reid and Hoyer, to name two) have followed Obama’s lead, which demonstrates a real shift in one of our two main parties on this issue.