The President is the first president in my lifetime- come to that, the first President, period- to mention me- to talk to me- in his speeches.
He did it in ways that conveyed I am part of America, not a stranger or an internal exile or an object of scorn.
He did it- over and over- with an un-self-conscious ease, in the manner of someone who actually means it when he says, "some of my best friends are gay."
When he shorthands the elements of my tribe, I know he knows what the letters mean, and I know he knows individuals who embody them, and I know that he is not struggling to remember to say them in the right order.
It's how he began his journey eight years ago, and how he ended it tonight. I doubt I will hear such things from a President again, for some time to come.
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