Progress NEVER comes fast enough. But it comes.

Winning rights isn't about patience. It is about persistence and perseverance and the recognition of progress that it happens.

President Obama speaking to the Human Rights Campaign meeting last night.

A wonderful orator, he started with gratitude for the opportunity to open for Lady GaGa. He went on to say many important things but one was "None of us wants to be defined by just one part of what makes us whole" after saying that every issue he deals with touches on the LGBT community: jobs, war, schools, health care. EVERYTHING is an LGBT issue. And he recognized progress made in some areas specific to LBGT communities while acknowledging that progress has not come fast enough in other areas, saying that it was not for him to counsel patience any more than it would have been appropriate to counsel patience for African Americans during the civil rights movement.

Meanwhile in DC: 

What progress:

• President Obama attended the HRC event and promised to sign the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill next week.
• President Obama acknowledged that LGBT residents are denied their full rights and responsibilities as citizens, but also that justice is not done by seeing people for a single part of their identities.
• President Obama indicated that he supported an inclusive ENDA.
• President Obama said we are going to end the discriminatory practice of keeping people out of the country based on HIV/AIDS status.
• President Obama indicated that we are moving ahead on Don't Ask Don't Tell.
• President Obama called for the rest of us to pressure him to make the case across America that these changes and others need to be made.

Is there much more that needs to be done.

Yes.

Can we do it?

Yes, we can.

(Do I still get a thrill out of typing 'President Obama'? Yes, I do!)