True Last Closing Chapter of Our Civil War’

Gay U.S. Ambassador: ‘True Last Closing Chapter of Our Civil War’

John Berry, the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, said Barack Obama’s election to president was the “true last closing chapter of our Civil War.”

Berry, who is homosexual and married to a man, was speaking at an event on Tuesday at the Department of the Interior focused on the National Park Service’s (NPS) “theme study” to find and promote places around the United States that are connected to the history of the LGBT “civil rights” struggle.

“I reminded her that it took 100 years to strike off the shackles of slavery,” Berry said he told a woman in Australia who asked about civil rights in America, “and 100 more to write the true last closing chapter of our Civil War with the election of our first African American president.”

Berry, who was director of the Office of Personnel and Management in the Obama administration before being appointed an ambassador by President Barack Obama in 2013, is described on the Embassy of the United States website as “the highest ranking openly LGBT executive in U.S. history.”

“Why is America moving so fast on so many fronts in civil rights?” Berry said the woman asked. “And she was, of course, referring to the election of an African American and the reelection of our African American president.

“But she was also referring to our advances in LGBT equality both in military service and for marriage,” Berry said. “My answer — just as this very important project seeks to capture history that (Interior) Sec. (Sally) Jewell and (NPS) Director (Jonathan) Jarvis are launching today — my answer was that you really have to look at history to appreciate the answer to that question.”

Berry cited the Declaration of Independence’s phrase, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“This is a solemn promise that we continue to perfect,” he said.

“I reminded her that it took 100 years to strike off the shackles of slavery, and 100 more to right the true last closing chapter of our civil war with the election of our first African American president,” Berry said, adding that the LGBT movement has benefitted from “his leadership.”

“Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis will host a panel discussion including leading historians and scholars to discuss ways to celebrate and interpret lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history in the context of broader American history,” the press release announcing the event stated.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/us-ambassador-obamas-election-was-last-closing-chapter-our-civil-war