Suze Orman’s Coming Out at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner

The girls stole this weekend’s Human Rights Campaign 12th Annual National Dinner. Sure, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden was to be the headliner, but he canceled because of the illness of his mother-in-law. That left the evening to Sen. Hillary Clinton, who filled in via video for Biden, and National Equality Award winner Suze Orman, who accepted it with life partner Kathy K. T. Travis. Orman revealed she was a lesbian in the New York Times in February 2007, and the duo were clearly pleased with the award, as these pictures show. To cheers, as she endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, Orman said, “I’ve never been as honored as I am tonight, and I’m honored because I’m honored by people that I know you know what it takes to be who we are. It’s not easy to stand up and to say I’m a lesbian.” She added: “It may not be easy, but it certainly is the right thing to do.” The dinner in presidential years is always a huge event, made more so each year with the political and financial muscle the Human Rights Campaign has.

As we posted this item, the Human Rights Campaign pulled down the pictures of Orman and her partner as well as the YouTube video of her 16-minute speech. Said a Human Rights Campaign spokesman: "Unfortunately, we did not have a licensing agreement to run the video of her speech." However, we're in luck. Another, separate, site has great pictures of the event and a few of Orman here.