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Pres. Obama Speaks to Gay Rights Activists
Aired October 10, 2009 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight -- President Barack Obama speaks out on gay rights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will end don't ask, don't tell. That's my commitment to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We're breaking down the president's comments tonight.
A war ambush horror story like you've never heard before from the men who survived it. Eight of their comrades didn't make it.
And spiritual healing gone awry. Two people are dead. Now a criminal investigation.
And the bar brawl that started with a punch ended in a shootout all caught on tape.
Good evening everyone, I'm Don Lemon. In his strongest language yet on gay rights, the president gives a groundbreaking speech. One filled with promises and commitments to a passionate group who helped make him president, but whose political agenda stirs debate.
President Barack Obama tonight spoke to the nation's largest gay rights group, the human rights campaign, and fully aligned his presidency with the group's top priorities. He offered no time lines, but he gave them plenty of commitments on everything from the military's don't ask, don't tell policy, to employment discrimination, to hate crime legislation.
Here are some of the highlights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: So I know you want me working on jobs and the economy and all of the other issues that we're dealing with. But my commitment to you is unwavering even as we wrestle with these enormous problems. And while progress may be taking longer than you like as a result of all that we face, and that's the truth, do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach.
(APPLAUSE)
My expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians, whether in the office or on the battlefield.
(APPLAUSE)
You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.
(APPLAUSE)
We are moving ahead on "don't ask, don't tell." We should not -- we should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country. We should be celebrating their willingness to show such courage and selflessness on behalf of their fellow citizens, especially when we're fighting two wars.
(APPLAUSE)
We cannot afford -- we cannot afford to cut from our ranks people with the critical skills we need to fight any more than we can afford for our military's integrity to force those willing to do so in the careers encumbered and compromised by having to live a life. So I'm working with the Pentagon, its leadership and the members of the House and the Senate on ending this policy. Legislation has been introduced in the House to make this happen. I will end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." That's my commitment to you.
(APPLAUSE)
Will we uphold the ideals on which this nation was founded, that all of us are equal, that all of us deserve the same opportunity to live our lives freely and pursue our chance at happiness. I believe we can. I believe we will. And that is why -- that's why I support ensuring the committed gay couples have the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couples in this country.
(APPLAUSE)
I believe strongly in stopping laws designed to take rights away and passing laws that extend equal rights to gay couples. I have required all agencies in the federal government to extend as many federal benefits as possible to LGTB families as the current law allows, and I've called on Congress to repeal the so-called defense of marriage act and to pass the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. You heard the comments. We have brought together a very special panel tonight to talk about the president's speech.
Dan Savage is an author and columnist. He is in Seattle tonight. Hillary Rosen is in Miami. She is a CNN political contributor. Michelangelo Signorile joins us from Washington, and activist and talk show host from Sirius XM radio. And then there's Dan Choi. He is also in the nation's capital tonight, a graduate from the U.S. military academy and the spokesman for Nights Out, a group of gay and lesbian alumni of West Point. Thanks, good to see all of you.
Michelangelo and Dan, both of you in the room.
Dan, I'll start with you. When he talked about don't ask, don't tell, promising to abolish it, repeal it, what did you think?
DAN CHOI, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: A lot --
(CROSSTALK)
Sorry, I don't know which Dan you were talking to.
LEMON: Oh, sorry, Daniel Choi in the news, in the room and military.
Well, a lot of people would hear a promise, and they would say that that's something that we can hold on to. You know, as a military person, I would say that, that was what we call a warning order. He is essentially saying that he will end don't ask, don't tell, not change don't ask, don't tell, not find ways to execute don't ask, don't tell against jilted lovers. He said --
LEMON: That he would end it.
CHOI: He would end it -- right.
LEMON: Here's the question, though, and I will give the other Dan, since you jumped in.
Dan Savage, the question that I've been getting through e-mails and on Twitter is, OK, so he said this before. I want to see a timeline. When is it going to happen?
DAN SAVAGE, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: He didn't say anything tonight and he didn't say during the campaign when he was candidate Obama. Watching his speech, Don, I thought, oh, this is great, this is awesome. I don't want to discount the symbolism of him going before HRC's annual big dinner as president making a speech. But there was nothing new here. He promised to end it before he was elected. Well, now he's elected president. We want a timeline. We want to see some action. And he could end it right now with a stop loss order, just like Janet Napolitano suspended enforcement of the widow's penalty. He has the authority. 78 members in Congress sent him a letter asking him right now to stop the enforcement of don't ask, don't tell while they work on a solution in Congress, and he hasn't.
LEMON: OK. We're going to get the guys out. We will get Hillary the last word in all of this. So I'm going to go now to Michelangelo Signorile.
Michael, you were in the room as well. What was the reaction in the room on don't ask, don't tell? Did people say when is he going to do it? He could -- you know, do they share Dan Savage's sentiments?
MICHAEL SIGNORILE, COLUMNIST: Well, I've got to tell you, I wasn't in the room. I almost was in the room, but they locked down the auditorium before I could get there.
LEMON: Secret service got you, huh?
SIGNORILE: I did watch it all, though. I got back to my hotel and watched it on television. You know, look, it was an inspirational speech. I know the people in the room excited to see the president there. They all went there to listen to him. And he really rouse them, and he does that great. He did it during the campaign.
But I agree with Dan completely. Nothing new. It was a great speech for February. We need it now after the loss of faith because he has dragged his feet and has not really spoken this way, we really needed to see something concrete, something of a timeline on don't ask, don't tell. He just -- really just didn't even mention the defense of marriage act. And we wanted to hear him speak out against these attacks on us. Up in Maine, there is a ballot measure. He needed to speech out against that ballot measure that's taking away the right to marry.
LEMON: Well, Michael, you know, on that and Hilary, you're going to jump in here, but you know, this was called don't ask, don't tell bill man, whatever -- there were other things that he talked about -- employment, discrimination, hate crime legislation, or what have you. There are other things that he did talk about.
But, Hilary, you know, just speaking to you, you and I were talking before the show, you don't necessarily agree with these guys. You think give him more time, right?
HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I agree with Dan Choi, which is he was speaking as commander-in-chief tonight, not as a candidate. He is the president and he said he has been talking to the generals. We know from the generals in their reports that they are undergoing planning. It's not for them to tell us what day they're going to execute that plan.
And I wish he had done a stop-loss, but guess what? The military folks working on this issue have asked him not do a stop-floss. They want legislation because they don't want a future president being able to undo it.
So, the gay community is very patient here, and it bothers me that there's an enormous amount of division here being expressed because...
LEMON: You said very patient or did you mean...
ROSEN: ...it doesn't really exist.
LEMON: Did you say patient or impatient? What did you mean by that?
ROSEN: I think the gay community is patient. This is not a single issue. We've asked him to repeal "don't ask, don't tell." We've asked him to pass hate crimes. We've asked him to stop employment discrimination. We've asked him to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. This is a -- this is a heavy load. And already in the first nine months, we have seen progress on several of those things. Look, four years ago, President Bush stood before the country and tried to write us out of the constitution. And guess what? He was re-elected.
So, the idea that this is not a complete sea change and that we should not take this guy at his word from what we've seen to me is mind boggling.
LEMON: What do you think of that, Dan Savage, that, you know, maybe the gay community should be a little bit more patient and give the administration time to do these things?
Because if you think about it, what group or block wants so many things done so soon? You know, Defense of Marriage Act, "don't ask, don't tell," employment discrimination and on and on.
Do you think that the gay community should be a little bit more patient possibly?
SAVAGE: No, I think we should be as impatient as the fierce urgency of now implies. People being thrown out of the military now, including Dan Choi. We didn't ask President Obama to do all of these things. President Obama as candidate Obama promised to do all of these things and has not done anything except give the same campaign speech over and over and over again.
LEMON: But by the same token, you know, the big marches tomorrow...
ROSEN: You know, there's a law that's going to be signed next week that President Bush would have vetoed.
SIGNORILE: A law that should have - a law that is 10 years old, a bill that is 10 years old. Long overdue.
ROSEN: That's right. That's how long it took. That just shows that these are not slam dunks. It's Congress that has to pass these laws.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Is that necessarily the Obama administration's fault that these laws haven't been passed within the, you know, the months of -- the couple of months of his administration. From what he said tonight, it appears that he is making some progress.
So, why blame the Obama administration for 10 years?
SIGNORILE: We're not - we're not seeing progress. Look, it is about right now. We have the biggest majority in the Congress we're going to get in terms of Democrats supporting LGBT rights and a Democratic president. It is about now. It has to happen now. He is somebody who is, you know, speaking to the human rights campaign, which accepts this incrementalist approach.
Hilary is on the board of HRC. I understand why she is on board with that. But really, the grassroots and what's happening tomorrow, the National Equality March, people are really saying to him, you need to come forward with what you promised during the campaign.
LEMON: And Michael, I want to talk to you about that because, you know, you got a very interesting sound bite from someone about that march, saying that, you know, it really doesn't mean anything. And I'm talking about Barney Frank, who is openly gay. So, I'll talk to you about that in a little bit.
Thank you, Dan, Daniel, maybe that's how we will distinguish you two, Hilary and then Michelangelo. Stick around because we're going to talk much, much more about this. These guys are going to joy us -- going to join us, if I can get my lips to work. A lot more on the president's speech from the all-star panel tonight.
Plus, we're going to talk about Afghanistan. A rare look inside a battle that killed eight American soldiers in Afghanistan last week. Four of the survivors tell their story.
And join the conversation, we're going to get some of your comments and questions to our panel as well. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, iReport.com. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, everyone. Welcome back. We're going to go in depth tonight on President Barack Obama's speech just a few hours ago to the nation's biggest gay rights group. And we've already heard what he had to say to the human rights campaign on issues like "don't ask, don't tell" and same-sex marriage. More of that panel in just a moment.
But first, here's the president's remarks on hate crimes legislation and job discrimination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We will see a nation that's valuing and cherishing these families as we build a more perfect union, a union in which gay Americans are an important part. I am committed to these goals and my administration will continue fighting to achieve them.
Now, there's no more poignant or painful reminder of how important it is that we do so that the loss experienced by Dennis and Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was stolen in a terrible act of violence 11 years ago.
In May, I met with Judy, who's here tonight with her husband. I met her in the Oval Office and I promised her that we were going to pass an inclusive hate crimes bill, a bill named for her son. This struggle has been long. Time and again we faced opposition. Time and again the measure was defeated or delayed, but the Shepards never gave up.
They turned tragedy into an unshakable commitment. Countless activists and organizers never gave up. You held vigils. You spoke out year after year, Congress after Congress. The House passed the bill again this week, and I can announce that after more than a decade, this bill is set to pass, and I will sign it into law.
We know there's far more work to do. We're pushing hard to pass an inclusive employee non-discrimination bill. For the first time ever, an administration official testified in Congress in favor of this law. Nobody in America should be fired because they're gay despite doing a great job and meeting their responsibilities. It's not fair. It's not right. We're going to put a stop to it.
If any of my nominees are attacked not for what they believe but for who they are, I will not waver in my support because I will not waver in my commitment to ending discrimination in all its forms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. The president talking about employment discrimination there and also hate crime legislation.
So once again, here's our panel to go over the president's speech. We're going to start with Dan because Dan may have to leave. He's got another commitment. Dan Savage this time.
So, Dan, you know what, this is a lot for, you know, Aunt Susie to swallow or for people, you know, we've talked about it's been 10 years. This is a lot for some folks to swallow and even conservatives. I mean, the president said a lot here, and I don't think the country -- not all of the country is there yet.
SAVAGE: Fifty-four percent of the country supports all of the same rights and responsibilities of marriage for same-sex couples. Upwards of 70-80 percent of the country supports ending "don't ask, don't tell."
These are mainstream positions on gay and lesbian issues. And, you know, you look at what the president is doing. You look at what's coming out of the White House, and it's hard to label it as anything other than political cowardice and a reluctance to take any risks on delivering on the promises made to the gay and lesbian community during the campaign.
We've been de-prioritized. The lip service is lovely. It's a lovely speech, a lot of applause lines, but not a lot of action out of the White House.
LEMON: OK, Hilary, I have to say this. That I've noticed among my lesbian friends, they're very supportive usually of President Barack Obama and they say patience, patience, patience, he's our best hope.
Among my gay male friends, they say do it, do something, the time is now, when is it going to happen. Why are they impatient?
ROSEN: I don't think the issue is -- I don't think the issue is patience versus impatience or incrementalism versus get it all now. The fact is, it doesn't matter what these guys say. Laws take time to pass. Congress has to pass them. The only thing the president can do on his own is do the stop-loss and end "don't ask, don't tell."
SAVAGE: And why doesn't he do it?
ROSEN: He can't -- he can't end the law, I'm sorry.
SAVAGE: I know he can't end the law. Why doesn't he issue the stop- loss?
ROSEN: Because the gay military advocates have asked him not to. And you know that. And so what I'm saying is, there is progress happening. It's not -- anyone who says incrementalism is bad doesn't understand actually how laws get made. Laws are in effect incremental. So, we have hate crimes. Next month the House of Representatives is going to pass ENDA. This is not on my part a defense of the status quo or a defense of simply stalling.
(CROSSTALK)
ROSEN: I'm telling you things are happening.
SAVAGE: But he keeps delivering this speech to our end, Hilary, but he doesn't deliver this speech to the leaders of Congress. Why isn't he bringing this message to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi? Why just to us? Why are we the only people who hear those? He needs to go to Congress and go to the Democratic leadership around...
LEMON: Hang on, guys. I want Daniel Choi to get in here because if there's any sort of discrimination that we're talking about here, he is the one who has been affected by it by not being in the military anymore.
So, when you hear the president say that and you hear Hilary say incrementalism being, you know, let's do this incrementally, how do you feel about that because you're no longer in the military? It's not working for you.
CHOI: Well, when I hear the word incrementalism, I think I hear the word shut up and, you know...
ROSEN: Wrong. That's not what I'm saying.
CHOI: ...be a little bit more, you know, silent on it. But I know that silence is certainly not a strategy. Well, we have to think about one thing, not about polls or what's popular or what's politically feasible, but what message are we sending to the rest of the world when we have inequality here in our own military here at home. And that's something that affects us now.
LEMON: I want Hilary to get in on this. Michelangelo, I want to let you jump in. But, Hilary, you were saying?
ROSEN: Well, I'm not suggesting stalling. I'm suggesting that laws get made and changed day by day, one at a time. That's how it works. That's the process. People might not like the process but that's how it works.
And the president is working with his generals. I don't think it's fast enough. I'm not defending the status quo and I'm not defending patience.
What I'm saying is, all of this action is actually moving in the Congress, and people need to push the Congress. But it is something the president has said he's doing, and it is happening. You know...
SIGNORILE: The...
LEMON: Michel, hang on.
ROSEN: ...they add that, instead of sitting back, doing nothing and complaining about it.
SIGNORILE: The one thing -- the one thing the president has is the bully pulpit to really talk about these issues, which should have been going on from a long time ago.
ROSEN: And I think he's done that tonight and he's done that several times.
SIGNORILE: And it should have been to the Congress -- and it should be to the Congress, and it should be to Nancy Pelosi, and it should be to Harry Reid. And he has not. He has dragged his feet. And that's what lost the faith of the masses of gay and lesbian, bisexual, transgender people.
LEMON: I do have to say this. I do have to say this. There have been lots of people who say, you know, and by the way, Dan Savage had to leave because of his other commitments. So, I had to smile because everybody's talking at once, you guys, and including my producer.
So, you know, when you hear what you guys said about the incrementalism and about, you know, taking things slowly and all of that and all of the criticism...
ROSEN: That's not slowly.
LEMON: Hang on, hang on.
ROSEN: It's just one at a time.
LEMON: Hilary, let me finish. And you hear the criticism that's coming from the some of the gay community about the president not moving fast enough, if you were in that room or looking in that room, it appears that you would not have known that. That the opposite would be true.
SIGNORILE: Don, and let me -- let me be clear here. The Human Rights Campaign, a group that does a lot of good work and certainly raises a lot of money, but the people in that room were very well healed, mostly white, mostly male people of a very certain class. Tomorrow...
LEMON: Why do you say that? What do you mean by that? Explain that to me.
SIGNORILE: Because it costs money to go to a dinner like that.
LEMON: Why are you pointing that out?
SIGNORILE: Because there are people who enjoy going to events like this. There are people for who it's part of their social life. It's great. It's fine. It raises money.
ROSEN: That's just silly.
SIGNORILE: But there are people who are not representative of the masses of people across the country. And so when you see them jumping up on a table, excited, they had a few drinks, it's not what's happening out there. There is a march tomorrow on the Mall. People are coming from all over the country, and they're impatient and they worked hard for this president.
LEMON: OK, Michael. Hilary, go ahead.
ROSEN: First of all, it's just silly -- it's just silly to disparage the audience, which is a relatively...
SIGNORILE: Nobody is disparaging them, Hilary.
ROSEN: Excuse me. Michael, I let you have it. Let me have it now. It is -- what I -- what I suggest is that it's a relatively sophisticated political audience and, therefore, they understand. They actually know that the president is going to be signing a bill next week. They know the House is going to be passing another bill in several weeks. They see the progress that has been made and they pay attention to it. And all I'm saying is that the president getting up there and making...
SIGNORILE: And they jump up on a table and the president says hey, I love you? Come on. That's not...
(CROSSTALK)
SIGNORILE: That's an easy date, Hilary. That's an easy date.
LEMON: Michael, play it nice. Let her finish her point. Go ahead, Hilary.
ROSEN: There is much to teach America. For Dan to suggest 54 percent means, you know, overwhelming support in a very divided political country, I think is somewhat naive. The president has an enormous bully pulpit as these guys have said, and he used it tonight to tie his success and his agenda with the quality for gay and lesbian people and their -- and our families. That is a huge success. It is not enough, but it is significant...
LEMON: And Hilary and Michael, we have to go. We have to go. But I'm going to give Daniel Choi the last word.
And really short, Daniel, because we're up against the break here.
CHOI: Sure. There were a lot of messages that were sent to a lot of people in that room and outside the room. The thing that I heard was we have to keep our president's feet to the fire. That is the responsible thing that citizens do.
LEMON: All right, Daniel Choi, Hilary Rosen, Michelangelo Signorile and to the just departed Daniel Savage, we thank you.
CHOI: Thank you.
LEMON: Have a good night.
SIGNORILE: Thank you.
LEMON: A shootout at an Ohio bar. It was a brawl that got way out of hand. The whole thing was caught on tape. We'll show you what happened.
Also, two people are dead after visiting a sweat lodge in Arizona. There's now a criminal investigation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A dramatic shootout caught on tape. Take a look at this unbelievable surveillance video. It started as a bar brawl between several men just before midnight Thursday in Toledo, Ohio. Then shots rang out and there was a mad rush for the door.
Boy, you can see one gun-wielding man ducking behind the pool table and others joined in the gun fight. Amazingly, no one was struck in the barrage of gun fire. Police are now trying to identify the gunmen and figure out exactly what started this in the first place.
Three people are lucky to be alive after their single-engine plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off Florida -- off the Florida coast. The Coast Guard says the plane was on its way to Tampa to Marathon, Florida -- from Tampa, I should say, to Marathon, Florida when it crashed Friday night. Two men and a woman were found clinging to a lobster trap buoy by a Coast Guard crew this morning. Rescue crews had been looking for them since receiving reports of the crash last night. There were only minor injuries in that one.
Police in Pennsylvania say a woman who was chatting with a friend via Webcam when her husband shot her several times. The man on the other end said he didn't see the first shot but heard a scream and then saw Melanie Hain's husband fire several more shots. Police said Scott Hain then went upstairs and killed himself with a shotgun. Melanie Hain had headlines -- made headlines last year when she took her loaded holstered handgun to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game. Her gun permit was revoked but later reinstated.
Investigators are trying to determine if criminal negligence played a role in the deaths of two people in Sedona, Arizona in a sweat lodge there. The Sheriffs Department is now focused on self-help experts and author James Arthur Ray and his staff. Forty-year-old James Shore of Milwaukee and 38-year-old Kirby Brown of Westtown in New York died Thursday night after being overcome by heat in the sauna-like temperatures. Nineteen others were treated in hospitals and one is in critical condition. They all were taking part in a spiritual cleansing ceremony led by Ray. An incredible story of bravery from Afghanistan. U.S. soldiers had to donate blood in the middle of a firefight. We'll hear from the brave men who lived to tell the story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A looming issue for President Barack Obama -- Afghanistan and what it takes to fight terrorism there. Should he send at least 40,000 extra troops into the war zone? That's one plan suggested by his top military commander there.
Mr. Obama is mulling it over after spending three hours in the situation room with his national security team on Friday. He's planning another session with his top advisers on Wednesday.
CNN's Fareed Zakaria takes a closer look at the war in Afghanistan and President Obama's options. "GPS," Sunday, 1:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN, the worldwide leader in news.
The shape of the battle plans in Afghanistan could be changing but the futures two of U.S. base camps in the rugged Nuristan region are sealed. They're shut down after a brutal Taliban attack that left eight American soldiers dead last weekend. The surviving troops say they were surrounded on all sides, clobbered by hundreds of heavily armed insurgents. Now they're opening up about how they held their ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
1ST LT. CASON SHRODE, U.S. ARMY: Probably 90 seconds into the fight, they ended up hitting one of our generators so we lost all power. At that point, I made a call up to -- to Paul Bostick (ph), and I basically just said, you know, we're taking heavy, heavy contact. At that point, I knew that this was something bigger than normal.
SGT. JAYSON SOUTER, U.S. ARMY: We found out that our mortar systems were unable to fire at that time. So, me, I started working on the fire assets with nearby OPs and cops to see exactly what fire support assets we can use.
SHRODE: I think the numbers were so more significant than 25 to 30 that we got -- they got 25 to 30 without initial push but because we were basically surrounded 360 degrees, I think they have significant numbers that allowed them to continue to fight throughout the day.
ROSS LEWALLEN, APACHE PILOT, U.S. ARMY: My initial impressions were unfortunately we came over the hill, I first tried to call them and we get no response, that everybody was gone. We could tell that everything around them was going to hell and we could hear in the microphones, we could hear the guns going off. So we knew that it was a pretty intense situation that they were facing.
SOUTER: After the aftermath, Camp Keating was completely changed. Like he said, almost all of the buildings were burned down. There were trees that were cut down trying to save other buildings from catching fire, and then just remnants of a mass attack afterwards. (END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: It's really some compelling stories there. I spoke with Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr just a little while ago, and here's what she had to say about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): You know, Don, it is really just heartbreaking to listen to these kids. 12-hour firefight. It was even hours before they could secure the landing zone to bring in medical helicopters to evacuate the wounded, they tell us. In fact, during those interviews with -- we should point out, with military reporters, it was the military that filmed these interviews. One of the soldiers said during the firefight some soldiers started donating blood to help save the wounded because they couldn't get them Medevac out of there.
LEMON: Hey, Barbara, you know, you're exactly right. Let's listen to that and I want you to react to that. I want the audience to hear that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOUTER: I think the best moment that, they told me, you know, what great unit I was in, what great guys I was working with, was when everyone basically came together and in the midst of it all they were donating blood for the wounded that we had. They all pulled together to make sure that we could pull our boys out of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: They were committed. So, why do they talk so freely, you think about this, Barbara?
STARR: Well, you know, this really is the classic case of a band of brothers, where young military men in combat fight and die for each other to save each other. This combat outpost was shut down, as you said, and we'll get back to that in a minute, over the last few days. They've now come into a more centrally located area where they're able to sit them down in front of a camera.
I think the military realizes that this was an extraordinary incident of valor, courage and very grim battle. And it's a story that needed to be told. It should be pointed out some of the insurgents actually breached the wire and got inside the U.S. base. Pretty unprecedented.
And so I would just circle back and tell people, these remote combat outposts are all in the process of being shut down because General McChrystal says he doesn't have enough troops to do the job properly and a lot of these outposts may be vulnerable as they go through this shut-down period. It really is a matter of urgent concern for the U.S. military, Don.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: CNN correspondent Barbara Starr. It was a heroic fight at those two Afghan outposts, but eight U.S. soldiers didn't live to tell their stories. And tonight, we are remembering the fallen -- Sergeant Justin Gallegos, Specialist Christopher Griffin, Private First Class Kevin Thompson, Specialist Michael Scusa, Staff Sergeant Vernon Martin, Specialist Steven Mace -- Stephen Mace, Sergeant Joshua Kirk and Sergeant Joshua Hardt.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Patience was running out, the pressure was on and President Obama knew it heading into tonight's speech at the nation's largest gay rights group. Members of the Human Rights Campaign had been venting their frustration for months over the lack of change on gay rights issues. But when the president stepped up to the podium, he pledged to turn campaign promises into action, paying special attention to how it would affect the next generation of gay Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let's say a young man, will struggle to fall asleep, wrestling alone with a secret he's held as long as he can remember. And soon perhaps he will decide it's time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on what him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community, but it also depends on us. On the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.
I believe the future is bright for that young person. For a while there will be setbacks and bumps along the road. The truth is that our common ideals are a force far stronger than any division that some might sow. And these ideals when voiced by generations of citizens are what made it possible for me to stand here today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So you see the president there drawing a direct line between gay rights and civil rights. And he says a major motivation for change is the well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender children and youth.
So what's it like for a kid to hold that secret, as the president was talking about, and what's it like to finally spill it? Let's talk about it with two teens. They're from Tulsa. Misty Teuful is a gay teen. She joins with us her mother. Her name is Davian Stephens. And Katie Hill is a transgender teen and joins with us her mom, Jazzlyn.
Thank you so much, and it's good to see all of you.
MISTY TEUFUL, GAY TEEN: Thank you.
KATIE HILL, TRANSGENDER TEEN: Thank you. LEMON: So as you're watching the president's speech or you're listening to him and you heard what he said there, and he talked about, you know, gay youth and then having to hold that secret and then come out, how did that feel for you, Katie?
K. HILL: It makes me feel really good that he's actually taking a stand for gay rights.
LEMON: And you came out in middle school, right?
K. HILL: I came out numerous times around middle school and high school. I really came out last year in my freshman year of high school.
LEMON: Transgender, and I've been getting comments from people saying, "You know, people leave the transgender people out of the conversation." I want to hear more about transgender people. As a transgender person, I wonder if it was tougher for you to come out because, you know, it's not the gender role that most people would think that you would have.
K. HILL: Being transgender, it wasn't as hard to come out to my friends. It was really hard to come out to my family, though, because I really didn't know how to explain it to them because even until last year, my freshman year, I didn't know myself exactly what I was.
And over the past few years, they've tried to give gay acceptance and lesbian acceptance. And lately, I've seen from different shows, different newscasts, about transgenders now, starting to get more affiliated. When I talk to my friends about it and I told them about myself, they didn't know how to...
LEMON: And it kind of makes it easier when people start to know that there are other people, you know, that you're not alone, right and they start to learn more about transgender. I think it may become easier for people to come out.
I want to talk now to Misty. Misty, you came out in middle school as well, right?
TEUFUL: Yeah, I came out in my sixth grade year. I was 12. And I came out to a group of friends at a party. And I wanted to get it out there because I didn't know if I was the only one who was going through it. And I was like, I'm bisexual. And everybody was like, "Oh, that's cool." And I asked them to keep it to themselves. And the next day at school it wasn't kept to themselves and...
LEMON: How do you know, though, in sixth grade?
TEUFUL: It's something that you always know, I guess. I say it's not a choice. It's something you born with. It's not you wake up one morning, "Oh, I want to be gay." My mom even told me that when I was little, I would tell the waitresses they were pretty. I mean I guess I had it from the get-go, I guess, so whatever.
LEMON: Okay, Davian, you know, you knew all along?
DAVIAN STEPHENS, PARENT OF GAY TEEN: In a way. I mean I didn't really go, oh, at 3, she's probably going to grow up and be a lesbian. But in middle school when she came out to me, I didn't have any problem with it. It's who she wants to be.
LEMON: But that same question, I asked in middle school, you know, because kids are coming out earlier and earlier, do you think by that age that they really know what's going on? Was that a concern for you?
STEPHENS: I mean, if they're big enough to go to school, they should know what's going on in their brain. I mean it's them themselves. It's not us making the decisions for them. It's them in their own head and their own thinking. They know what they want and what they want out of life.
LEMON: And Jazzlyn, you know, Katie, we've been saying, is transgendered. Were you concerned about safety at all because with transgender people, you know, violence can occur because people have sometimes a very -- a violent reaction towards transgender people?
JAZZLYN HILL: Yes. Yes, that was my biggest concern when she first told me, that her safety was the big issue to me.
LEMON: So how'd you react? What did you say to her?
J. HILL: You know, I didn't really react and everything. I just told her it was okay and that if, you know, we stick together, we'll get through it. And no matter what she decided that I loved her for whatever she wanted to do. And, you know, we would just go through it together and don't worry about it.
LEMON: Has that been the reaction from all family members?
J. HILL: Oh, no. No. The youngest one took it pretty hard and cried and everything. But I just think it's because he has to walk in the shadows of Katie. And I think that, you know, he just -- being 10, he just didn't really understand the whole transgender thing. He's still young.
LEMON: And Misty and Davian, what's the reaction been from your entire family?
STEPHENS: On my side of the family, I mean, I grew up with a lot of gay people in my family. My twin brother is gay. And he didn't come out to my parents until he was actually in college.
LEMON: Okay, so there are people who are watching who probably, you know, have some mixed emotions about this. What do you say to people who say, "Oh my gosh, these kids shouldn't be coming out in middle school" and that, you know, their parents should encourage them to live in their own gender, the gender in which they were born, or to have a relationship with the opposite sex?
Misty, I'll start with you. TEUFUL: I say that they need to stay behind their kids. It's their person that they created and they should be able to stand behind them and say, "This is who you are and I accept you no matter what." No parent in this world raises their kid to be gay. No parent raises their kid to be transgender. It's not something you sit down and tell your kid. You're just supposed to stand behind them and be with them 100 percent.
LEMON: Hey, Katie, in the short time we have left, I'll give you the last word real quickly here. I'm sorry. Yeah, Katie, go ahead.
K. HILL: Just the last word? I think parents should, just like Misty said, stay behind their daughter and son in whatever they choose. People just don't understand exactly what we go through. They think that we choose to be this way.
TEUFUL: We choose to get harassed.
K. HILL: Yeah, I don't see who would wake up one day and say, "I choose to be hated by everyone at my school. I choose to be having the fear of being beaten up every day. I choose to be abnormal." It doesn't make sense. It's...
LEMON: Well, Misty and Katie, you are very lucky to have such understanding and loving parents. So I thank you, Katie, Misty, Davian, and also Jazzlyn. Thanks to you. Have a great evening, okay?
K. HILL: Thank you.
LEMON: Best of luck.
Coming up, dramatic video of just how damaging a tidal wave can be. We'll show you what happens when a tsunami crashes into a parking lot filled with cars. Shocking pictures next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, so we all know tsunamis are powerful waves generally caused by earthquakes. But take a look at just how devastating they can be. This is surveillance video by the FBI office in Pongo Pongo, American Samoa last month. Watch as a huge tidal wave crashing into the parking lot and tosses vehicles around like toys. More than 180 people died in that tsunami. Recovery efforts are still underway.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: Up next, the 18-hour hostage crisis in Pakistan has ended. The heavily armed Islamist insurgents who stormed the army headquarters have been taken down. The dramatic details in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMONS: Gunshots, hostages, and pandemonium at Pakistan's army headquarters. Pakistani commandos staged a raid a short time ago and freed 22 people held hostage for more than 18 hours by Islamist militants. Three hostages and four militants were killed in the operation.
The heavily armed insurgents wearing military uniforms stormed the compound earlier, sparking a gun battle that killed six soldiers and four militants. Authorities believe the Taliban or an allied Islamist group were behind the attack.
Do voters have too much to say in California? The head of the state supreme court says -- or too much say, I should say, in California. The head of the state supreme court says maybe they do when it comes to chronic referendums. Chief Justice Ronald George compared the ballot box system to a "fiscal straitjacket." George criticized the initiative program and called for reform saying the constant voting prevents lawmakers from fixing California's money crisis.
Coming up, it's your turn to speak out. Your Twitter and Facebook comments and the news of the day next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Okay, I need Bonnie's help on this. Bonnie, you know, there's going to be a very interesting character in "Playboy" magazine.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Anyone we know?
LEMON: Oh, yeah. We talked about it earlier. Can you believe Marge Simpson is going to be in "Playboy" magazine? We know, it's a character. But she has an interview in there. She's got a centerfold.
SCHNEIDER: But she looks a little startled in that picture. Are you sure she knows she's in "Playboy"?
LEMON: Right, right, right. She's going in the footsteps of the big guys like Marilyn Monroe and Farrah Fawcett. It was Hugh Hefner who started all of this stuff. Homer shot the pics.
SCHNEIDER: Of course, he did.
LEMON: Yeah. Yeah, it comes out in November. October 16th. I'm not sure who's going to buy a copy of it. The articles are good. Let's put it that way. It's part of the "The Simpsons" 20th anniversary. They want to attract some younger readers. And so, they think by doing that they can do it.
Jessica Rabbit, by the way, just so you know was the first character on the cover. I don't even remember seeing that cover.
SCHNEIDER: I didn't even know that. That's a good bit of trivia. I never knew that.
LEMON: Okay, this one is a little -- you have to see this one to believe it, okay. Will you watch it with me?
SCHNEIDER: Of course.
LEMON: Okay. This one is really -- you can call it political muppets. "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" dubbed over the voices of Big Bird and company to make a satire of the first lady's visit to "Sesame Street." It was all in good fun but take a look at it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIG BIRD: And are you absolutely sure he wasn't born in Kenya?
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm sure, Big Bird.
BIG BIRD: That's not what the Basket Bunch says.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, your husband's a stinking liar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to run him out of office.
CHILDREN: Yay!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The first part of that, which is my favorite, that we didn't show, I don't know why, when she comes on, Big Bird says, "Oh, the first lady's here. Are you here to push your husband's socialist agenda?" And then...
SCHNEIDER: I don't think the Basket Bunch really said that though. They're friendly vegetables.
LEMON: Obviously it's a satire but some people might be offended by that, you know.
SCHNEIDER: Oh, absolutely. It was unexpected.
LEMON: Yeah, unexpected. Okay, but it's late night, all in fun, we hope. All right, Bonnie Schneider, thank you for helping me out with those.
SCHNEIDER: You're welcome.
LEMON: Coming up, a ton of reaction to the president's speech tonight. We'll show you some of the tweets.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, we're taking a look now at the social networking sights. These are on Twitter. Here's what Mike Wessler (ph)has to say. He says, "I thought I was great. He basically told the audience he agrees with them. But they need to keep pressure on for action."
And Steviespin says, "It was a joyful moment. It's sad that Dan Savage et all still find to pick away at our shared optimism for a better future.
Lots more comments and we thank you for them. We're going to share more tomorrow night when we join you at six and 10:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Have a great evening, everyone.
