Obama on LGBT equality: ‘This is an issue that is going to be moving in the right direction as long as we stay vigilant’

President Barack Obama has done a YouTube video interview and I’m happy to share with you what he has to say about same-sex marriage and LGBT equality.

He was asked about the Alabama Supreme Court justice’s renewed effort to block marriage equality in his state despite the US Supreme Court’s June 26 ruling that made same-sex marriage legal across the country.

Obama began by saying that marriage equality is ‘here to stay. … That’s now the law of the land.’

“The fact that an Alabama judge is resisting… is just a temporary gesture by this judge, which will be rapidly overturned. It violates the supremacy clause – when the Constitution speaks, everybody has to abide by it, and state judges can’t overturn it.”

‘I think that the process of changing people’s attitudes, of people treating the LGBT community with full equality and respect, making sure they’re not discriminated against on the job or in housing – those are the areas we’ve still got some significant work to do.’

‘For young people, making sure they’re not bullied, that requires the participation of all of us. We’re not there yet – but on the other hand, I’ve got to tell you… to watch the amazing strides that we’ve made over the past five years, ten years, all as a result of people who had the courage to come out and say ‘here’s who I am’, but who did it 20-30 years ago when it was incredibly tough.

”The thing that makes me most hopeful is when I talk to [daughters] Malia and Sasha, young people of your generation – their attitudes are so different.

“The notion that you’d discriminate against someone because of sexual orientation is so out of sync with how most young people think – including young Republicans, young Democrats – it’s across some of the usual political lines. This is an issue that is going to be moving in the right direction as long as we stay vigilant and keep working on it.”