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The President had wonderful words for both LGBT awardees at the Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House earlier this week. Billie Jean King, though, proposed an ongoing project for the community: who else in our history should be so honored? The groundbreaking athlete will put together a list and forward it to the President for consideration in future years; have you any ideas of LGBT Medalists for Barack Obama to consider?

President Obama had this to say as he conferred the Medal of Freedom on the late San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk:

"For much of his early life, he had silenced himself. In the prime of his life, he was silenced by the act of another," Obama said. "But in the brief time in which he spoke — and ran, and led — his voice stirred the aspirations of millions of people. He would become, after several attempts, one of the first openly gay Americans elected to public office. And his message of hope — hope unashamed, hope unafraid — could not ever be silenced. It was Harvey who said it best: ‘You gotta give ‘em hope.’"

Harvey Milk’s Medal of Freedom was accepted on his behalf by his gay nephew, Stuart Milk, who made a point of speaking later about differences and the value society places on them:

Stuart Milk, who was 17 when Harvey died, never officially came out to his uncle but started talking to him about “feeling different” when he was 14.

“He told me that feeling different is a gift and the world is made much stronger by celebrating people’s differences,” Milk recalled.

About legendary athlete Billie Jean King, the President linked her achievements to the aspirations of his own daughters:

Obama recounted that 11-year-old King purchased an $8 racket with money earned from chores and declared her goal to become the number one tennis player in the world.

But today, Obama said, "We honor what she calls ‘all the off-the-court stuff’ — what she did to broaden the reach of the game, to change how women athletes and women everywhere view themselves, and to give everyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation — including my two daughters — a chance to compete both on the court and in life. As Billie Jean once said, ‘We should never, ever underestimate the human spirit.’"

King mentioned the unifying principle shared by all of this year’s recipients, who collectively redeemed the Medal of Freedom from its perfidious use during the Bush regime:

"It didn’t matter what their background was or where they came from," King said of her fellow recipients, "the one unifying thing is every single person wanted to make a difference for others — that’s what I was thinking about."

The lesbian icon also mentioned at a later reception that she views her Medal of Freedom as a starting point for the LGBT community, and will forward names of other members of our community who deserve simllar Presidential recognition.

King hoped there would be more LGBT honors to come and said she was going to offer President Obama a list of potential candidates.

“I’d like to go back through the history of the gay movement and figure out who deserves it,” she said. “We should go for it, right?”

I’ll start us off: Frank Kameny, Ellen Degeneres, Gore Vidal, & RuPaul.

So who in the LGBT community do you think President Obama should present a Medal of Freedom next year?

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