Obama: "kindness and dignity"

Barack Obama was interviewed by PBS' Gwen Ifill last night, followed by a townhall meeting at the Lerner Theater in Elkhart, IN.

Arvis Dawson, executive assistant to former Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore, asked how bathroom access for transgender people became an issue.

Somehow people think that I made it an issue. I didn't make it an issue.

There are a lot of things that are more pressing. You're absolutely right.''

But issues come to you.

--President Obama

What happened and what continues to happen is you have transgender kids in schools. And they get bullied. And they get ostracized. And it's tough for them.

Schools were asking for guidance.

We’re of a generation where that stuff was all out of sight and out of mind. So people suffered silently. But now they’re out in the open.

We should deal with this issue the same way we'd want it dealt with if it was our children.

And that is to try and create an environment with some dignity and kindness for these kids.

That's sort of the bottom line. I have to just say what's in my heart. But I also have to look at what's in the law.

My best interpretation of what our laws and our obligations are is that we should try to accommodate these kids so that they are not in a vulnerable situation.

--Barack Obama

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issues, classy, thoughtful, and light years from Bush/Cheney.
Maddeningly centrist at times, but at others, I'm proud to have him be the president.
I voted for him twice.

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"Fear is the mind-killer" - Frank Herbert, Dune

Bill Clinton was a close second though. I wish I could combine Bill Clinton's economy with Obama's social changes.

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elmo's picture

for Bill Clinton's economy, though, as we found out in 2008. The people who benefited most from it left the rest of us to pick up the tab.

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Even the smallest person can change the course of the future

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Didn't really support gay marriage until it was a done deal. Like other centrists, he betrays the middle and working classes though, with bailouts and freetrade. He also allowed the Clintons and the neocons to hijack his foreign policy. I voted for him in 2008 but voted Stein in 2012.

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Because I knew he'd be an even better president than he was during his first term!

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nor the people he harmed by bailing out wallstreet instead of injecting the money in a way that helped thier victims. The economy never recovered for the majority, and the life expectancy for the average person has gone down. While defending transgenders was a good thing it is also not a problem which impacts his donors, or afflicts the majority.

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As a bad thing making up for a good thing. Every body and thing is a mix of both. Overall I'm happy for the good things more than upset with the bad things.

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neoliberals do. I am downwardly mobile, not transgender. I choose a candidate that doesn't bitch slap the non-wealthy.

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His campaign lies and charm fooled me, and I kept making excuses for him. I should have known better when he brought Rahm with him. To me now, he has been a bad president and a bad person on a global scale, cruel to whistleblowers and to migrants and their families, cruel to all those affected by the deaths of innocent people in his incessant drone murdering, cruel to people all over the world hurting or dying because of his promotion of endless wars and empire. And at home he has been as bad as or worse than Bush in his environmental and social policies. His legacy is evil, and he should hope people forget it, rather than worrying about preserving it.

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Barbara Marquardt