While it’s been eight long years, today is not about looking back, it’s about looking forward. Despite the recent slights to the LGBT community, whether intended or not, I still have a great sense of hope and optimism as Barack Obama becomes our next president. The breadth and scope of the issues the new administration must face is daunting, but I am hopeful that this is the right team at the right time in history to address them.

On this momentous day, the people’s faith in government and what it can do has been restored. And as long as we remain vigilant and hold our leaders to their words, that faith will endure and as Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Barack Obama’s swearing in and inaugural speech…