Barack Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current president of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as a civil rights attorney, taught at the University of Chicago, and served in congress before being elected President in 2008. Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, repealed the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy of the U.S. Military, ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden. Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his Presidency: Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three, for the first time in American history. During his second inaugural address in 2013, Obama called for full equality for LGBT Americans: "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well." This was a historic moment, being the first time that a president mentioned “gay rights” or the word "gay" in an inaugural address.
