Financial guru Suze Orman said she can't support a Republican for president because social issues of LGBT rights affect her pocketbook.
"Obviously it is no secret that I am gay, so it is very difficult for me to look at any Republican nominee and go, oh, that's who I want in office," she said while a guest on The View. "Now I understand that President Obama isn't necessarily for marriage and things, but I do believe that I have more of a chance."
Orman said "my social issue affects my financial issue." And she recently offered tips on what LGBT families should do to protect themselves financially during a forum with the Huffington Post. (Watch the video below.) "Honey, if one of these guys gets in, you and I are up the creek," she told forum participants about the likelihood of same-sex marriage passing with a Republican in office. Also during the Huffington Post forum Orman talked about the moment during the '90s when she warned her new book publisher (who was offering her a big advance) that she wasn't going to be closeted. She recalls telling an executive, "If you're going to pay money to somebody like this, you just got to know I'm gay, and if anybody asks me I'm just going to say so, so if you don't want to give me $800,000, you don't have to anymore."
Orman told Arianna Huffington that she's always known she's a lesbian.
"I'm a 50-year-old virgin," she joked when Huffington asked if Orman had ever been through a "man phase."
"I've never been with a man my whole life," she said. "I knew almost from the very beginning." And that's part of the reason why Orman said, "I aways thought that I was out," which is what led to that moment with the book executive. "I didn't think I had to officially come out because everybody knew that I was gay."
Hillary Clinton's soaring speech
on international LGBT issues was game changing. A historic address of
this magnitude was desperately needed to counter the rising tide of
backwards and barbaric nations that had recently been persecuting LGBT
people to distract from their glaring problems.
"I want to talk about the work we have left to do to protect one
group of people whose human rights are still denied in too many parts of
the world today," said Clinton
to a packed auditorium of human rights activists who gathered in Geneva
for International Human Rights Day. "I am talking about gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and given
bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is
now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time."
The list of countries that recently declared war on sexual minorities
include Russia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Iran, and Zimbabwe. For the
contemptible despots who run these underachieving nations, fomenting
homophobia makes political sense. By turning homosexuals into bogeymen
these rulers can conceal their corruption and appear moral through the
blessings of craven clergy.
If the worldwide attacks on LGBT people seem deliberate and
coordinated, it is because they very well may be. In author Jeff
Sharlet's book, The Family, he reveals that ambitious American
evangelicals are working to surround the United States, Canada, and
Western Europe with fundamentalist regimes -- using homosexuality as a
key wedge issue to gain power. Researchers Rachel Tabachnick and Bruce
Wilson have also documented that a radical and sprawling evangelical
group, The New Apostolic Reformation, has infiltrated many countries and
exported anti-LGBT hate.
It has been greatly disturbing to witness the war on LGBT people
unfolding in recent weeks. I had privately fretted that these AHEM's
(American Hate Exporting Movements) were further along in their dubious
and dangerous designs than people realized. I was also concerned that
the American government would back off challenging international
homophobia in an election year. After all, the Obama administration
surely did not want to be browbeaten as anti-faith by phony martyrs and
their false claims of religious discrimination.
However, something drastic needed to happen to turn back the tide of violence and discrimination that plagued these "loser nations."
The U.S. had to make it crystal clear that those exporting hate were
not representing our government. Instead, these zealots were operating a
shadow foreign policy that undermined America's interests.
President Barack Obama boldly stepped into this bloody vacuum and
provided desperately needed leadership and moral clarity. He issued an
incredible memorandum directing all agencies to "promote and protect the
human rights of LGBT persons." This was followed by Clinton's moving
speech that was as notable for its directness, as it was for its depth.
Usually in such addresses we get diplomatic drivel that satisfies no
one and accomplishes little. But today's actions by the administration
and Clinton's speech were different. The words were spoken with true
vision and encrusted in values. There was clarity and passion, and no
one was left wondering where our country stood on the rights of LGBT
people.
This was one of those times where our nation demonstrated true
international leadership and made me incredibly proud to be an American.
It was stirring to witness our country act decisively as force for
moral good. There was no patronizing that relegated the LGBT community
to the role of liberalism's unwanted stepchild. There were no carefully
crafted and focus grouped code words that sugarcoated the abuses -- just
the honest truth spoken from the heart.
"It is a violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed
because of their sexual orientation, or because they do not conform to
cultural norms about how men and women should look or behave," said
Clinton in her speech. "It is a violation of human rights when
governments declare it illegal to be gay, or allow those who harm gay
people to go unpunished."
The beauty of Clinton's talk was that it was highly educational. It
forcefully challenged the ignorant stereotypes and vicious lies
disseminated by despots and their American evangelical patrons.
"Being gay is not a Western invention; it is a human reality,"
Clinton said. "And protecting the human rights of all people, gay or
straight, is not something that only Western governments do."
Needless to say, the leaders of AHEM's and anti-LGBT politicians went
nuts. "This is just the most recent example of an administration at war
with people of faith in this country," said failing presidential
candidate Rick Perry, who shocked people by putting a complete sentence
together. Perry conveniently failed to mention that Clinton and Obama
are both people of deep faith.
The stunning events in Geneva mark the moment Barack Obama secured a
national LGBT vote for his 2012 re-election campaign. Today we felt hope
-- but more importantly, we witnessed monumental change.
