--- title: Pride Reception: Gay Rights Activists Hope It Continues description: Gay rights activists say they hope President Obama's successor continues the Pride Reception. canonical: https://time.com/4363235/white-house-pride-reception-hillary-clinton/ author: Julissa Higgins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-09T19:27:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:29.066Z article:section: Politics og:title: Advocates Hope Pride Reception Continues Under Next President og:description: "These sorts of things and gatherings are important." og:url: https://time.com/4363235/white-house-pride-reception-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c8c959e83a8a496/6988972a196cf4f6b703bf32/white-house-pride-reception.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama hosts a reception in honor of national Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month in the East Room of the White House June 15, 2012 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Advocates Hope Pride Reception Continues Under Next President twitter:description: "These sorts of things and gatherings are important." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c8c959e83a8a496/6988972a196cf4f6b703bf32/white-house-pride-reception.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Gay Rights Advocates Hope Pride Reception Continues Under Next President > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: This is The History of the Rainbow Flag [Watch (HLS stream): This is The History of the Rainbow Flag](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bnTiT5cr.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2015-06-24. How the rainbow flag became an icon of LGBT rights_ by [Julissa Higgins](https://time.com/author/julissa-higgins/) ## Julissa Higgins Jun 9, 2016 7:27 PM UTC  President Barack Obama hosts a reception in honor of national Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month in the East Room of the White House June 15, 2012 in Washington, DC. President Barack Obama hosts a reception in honor of national Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month in the East Room of the White House June 15, 2012 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Julissa Higgins](https://time.com/author/julissa-higgins/) ## Julissa Higgins Jun 9, 2016 7:27 PM UTC Gay rights activists say they hope President Obama’s successor continues a White House tradition that he’ll [participate in for the last time Thursday](http://www.washingtonblade.com/2016/05/26/obama-to-host-white-house-pride-reception-on-june-9/): the Pride Reception. Held every June since Obama took office in 2009, the reception is the Administration’s way of [welcoming the LGBT community](http://time.com/3934921/barack-obama-gay-pride/) while also making sure to mark some of its progress on political issues. He’s used it to talk about the repeal of [“don’t ask don’t tell,”](http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/29/obama.gay.pride/index.html?iref=nextin) [same-sex marriage](http://www.advocate.com/politics/2012/06/15/obama-celebrates-milestones-white-house-pride-reception-1?page=full) and employment discrimination. JoDee Winterhof, vice president of policy and political affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, said she’d like to see it become a mainstay. “It would be my assumption that if Hillary Clinton is elected president, which, we certainly hope she will be, we’re going to work hard to help make it so that she would continue this tradition,” she says. “We think as a community these sorts of things and gatherings are important and so we would certainly encourage anyone to continue this type of celebration.” The reception is only a small part of Obama’s legacy on gay rights, which have taken huge steps forward during his time in office although [advocates have not always been happy](http://www.npr.org/2016/06/09/481306454/not-always-a-thunderbolt-the-evolution-of-lgbt-rights-under-obama) with his approach. During the 2015 reception, an LGBT immigrant rights activist [interrupted Obama’s speech](http://fusion.net/story/175990/jennicet-gutierrez-interrupted-president-obama/) for nearly two minutes to call for transgender women to be released from men’s immigration detention centers, leading the audience to boo her and Obama to ask that she be removed. Despite that, Jennicet Gutiérrez said she had “an overall positive experience” at the event, though she still puts it low on her list of White House priorities. “Having pride receptions are really not something that I prioritize,” said Gutiérrez. “What really matters to me is that we truly need to see change and we need to stop the violence that we are facing, the discrimination, and the abuse.” At this year’s Pride Reception, Obama is expected to address the North Carolina law which restricts transgender people’s use of public bathrooms. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The rainbow flag is a worldwide symbol of the LGBT community, but it's birthplace is in San Francisco and it's creation is thanks to a man named Gilbert Baker. Baker moved to San Francisco as an Army draftee in 1970. It was there that he became acquainted with Harvey Milk and they gay rights movement. Gay rights now. After sewing many banners for gay events and marches, the San Francisco Gay and **** Pride Parade commissioned him to design a symbol that could be used for years to come. And this is what Baker came up with the original rainbow flag. The rainbow is a beautiful part of nature. All of the colors and even the colors you can't see. So that really fit us as a people because we are all of the colors. Our sexuality is all of the colors, where all the genders, races and ages. Each color represents something different Pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for the human spirit. The flag later evolved to have six stripes. Turquoise was swapped for blue and pink and indigo were taken out. 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