Barack Obama: LGBT idol-in-chief

When President Obama agreed to sit for a portrait for Out magazine, he became the first US head of state to be photographed for a gay magazine. It may seem a small gesture, but nothing the President chooses to do is casual or unconsidered. That cover, for the magazine’s annual Out100 portfolio of LGBT notables, signifies a spectacular transformation in the status of America’s LGBT community, one that few saw coming seven years ago. When Obama was sworn into office in 2009, gay Americans were permitted to wed in just two states. Moreover, his election coincided with a stinging rebuke to marriage equality proponents in California, where a public referendum to amend the state constitution to define marriage as only between men and women was easily passed.

Much of the vigour and purpose that Obama is now applying to promoting LGBT equality stems from a latent recognition that the struggles of gay Americans are not dissimilar to those of black Americans. “What we’re talking about is equality under the law – that was a critical element of the US civil rights movement and an essential part of the struggle LGBT people face,” he told me. “My mom instilled in me the strong belief that every person is of equal worth. At the same time, growing up as a black guy with a funny name I was often reminded of exactly what it felt like to be on the outside.”

For many, the President’s awakening on the issue of same-sex marriage was all the more striking for the lukewarm position he adopted during his 2008 campaign, when he said he was in favour of equality but not marriage. The precedents were dismaying. Bill Clinton effectively institutionalised the closet in the military with the wildly misbegotten “Don’t ask, don’t tell” bill and oversaw the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act, denying federal recognition of same-sex unions. George W Bush yoked his re-election strategy to anti-gay marriage sentiment. Those were dismal times. Well, as the Munchkins liked to sing: “Ding Dong, the Witch is dead.”

It turns out that President Obama is our Glinda, riding the winds of change to turn LGBT equality into a legacy issue with breathtaking haste. Without his active engagement, the successes of the past few years might have continued to elude us. It’s under his watch that Americans have seen the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, and the passage of the first-ever federal LGBT law in the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act, among many other initiatives.

But his conversion on marriage equality in May 2012 wrought the most remarkable change on America. In 2013 the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down, paving the way to annul the ban in California, but the biggest test came this summer, with Obergefell v Hodges seeking to declare state bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Lawyers for the White House filed a brief to the Supreme Court that such bans were akin to prohibitions on interracial marriage. The 5-4 vote dismantled the last barriers to same-sex unions, putting the 44th president firmly on the right side of history. It’s a fact of which he’s all too aware, observing how his daughters Malia and Sasha reflect the shifting sands: “It doesn’t dawn on them that friends who are gay or friends’ parents who are same-sex couples should be treated differently. That’s powerful. My sense is that a lot of parents aren’t going to want to sit around the dinner table and try to justify to their kids why a gay teacher or a transgender friend isn’t quite as equal as someone else.”

Could the Out100, which for 21 years has celebrated LGBT men and women who inspire by example, be on the cusp of redundancy? It would be wishful thinking to hope so. Marriage is one thing, true equality quite another. This will go down as a banner year for gay Americans, but the struggle for true acceptance continues.

This article was amended on 15 November 2015. In it, we said the Supreme Court filed a brief that such bans were akin to prohibitions on interracial marriage. The Supreme Court receives briefs; it does not file them. This has been corrected.

For the full OUT100 list, go to out.com