Raven Brooks, Executive Director of Netroots Nation; “Follow the LGBT Community.”

Sarah J. Jackson

Guest Blogger

Reporting from Netroots Nation in Providence, RI

At Thursday night’s opening keynote which featured Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood and Providence Mayor Angel Tovares among others, Raven Brooks, Executive Director of Netroots Nation told a lively audience, “We all need to be looking to the LGBT community; they are succeeding.” In particular, Brooks noted the successes of the LGBT community in the last year, including the overturn of DADT, the overturn of Prop 8 at the state level in California, and President Obama’s support of same-sex marriage. Brooks also acknowledged that after the 2008 election, while “many progressives stopped to celebrate the election of Barack Obama,” the LGBT community kept up the pressure on both government officials and the media and as a result succeeded in changing the national political conversation.