Originally posted by kestra
It matters to A LOT of people on both sides (people who are pro or against gay rights). As Ari said, it would be a first; just like the first female prez, first gay prez, first Muslim prez, etc...
Ask a black person who was alive during MLK's time and you'll understand why it's so important. Many gay people today are still harassed, beaten and killed SOLELY because of their sexuality. Having a gay president of the United States would send an unequivocal message to the country and the rest of the world, saying WE ARE EQUAL.
...steps down from his soapbox
Originally posted by Rosuav
But there's a difference between statistical curiosity ("Hey look, this is the first president who's never been a state governor before") and things that are of major personal interest, like the three you mention above.

The fact is, though, that that equality simply doesn't exist. The more people talk about it, the more obviously it doesn't exist. By the way, can I please put a [citation needed] tag on most of your statements?
Rosuav is absolutely right. The strides towards equality African Americans have made, which is exemplified by the existance of an African American President, doesn't exist for GLBT (see topic header for what this acronym means) Americans.

I am puzzled by the call for citations in response to Kestra's statement that "many gay people today are still harassed, beaten and killed SOLELY because of their sexuality."

Nonetheless, here are some cites (most of these are America only, or at best America focussed, but I don't have time at the moment to try to find some more global statistics. I hope you can trust that in America gays are relatively safe, so you can imagine the violence they suffer in other parts of the world):
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/disc...s=lgbt&p=index
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2006/table1.html
http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/offender_motivation.pdf
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/hatew...rtherecord.jsp