Obama's Transgender Reference Historic

It was an interesting Union Address last night, especially as the words "lesbian," "bisexual," and "transgender" were uttered for the first time in the history of a State of the Union Address.

In that address, President Obama had confirmed that gay marriage is a civil right. But the other letters that are rife among the LGBT community were also mentioned, according to bluereview.com.

"As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we're threatened, which is why I've prohibited torture, and worked to make sure our use of new technology like drones is properly constrained," said Obama, adding, "That's why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. We do these things not only because they're right, but because they make us safer," Obama said.

The federal government has always been silent about these issues. Now that they are part of the list of recognized groups in this country, it was a step forward that their issues were addressed.

Obama declared that marriage is a "civil right" on Tuesday night too, just a few days after the Supreme Court was going to take up the issue of marriage equality. This spring season, though, it could come to a final ruling on whether it's constitutional or not to disallow same-sex couples to get married.

"I've seen something like gay marriage go from a wedge issue used to drive us apart to a story of freedom across our country..." he said.

While most Republicans tried to just call his talk what it is for a while---just talk, it was important and salient. After Leelah Alcorn's "tragic suicide", such issues have won a lot of attention. It is important to accord the trans people a lot of visibility as well as a hearing.

"2014 was an amazing year for trans rights. 2015 may be even better," according to slate.com.