Barack Obama has used the word ‘gay’ more times than any other US president in recent history, according to an LGBT charity.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) say that he has used the word 272 times on the record since taking office in 2009, while Bill Clinton used the word 216 times.
George W Bush only used the word on the record twice, once while condemning marriage equality, while the report found both George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan never used the word in presidential remarks.
President Obama also used the words ‘lesbian’, ‘bisexual’ and ‘transgender’ a total of 421 times, far more than any other president.
Chad Griffin, president of HRC, said: “Words matter an enormous amount, and when President Obama uses his platform to declare that LGBT people are just as American as anyone else, it has a huge and historic effect”.
“Evidence suggests that when people know us, they don’t want to discriminate against us.”
President Obama is much more vocal about LGBT rights than his predecessors, openly supporting marriage equality, criticising countries for adopting anti-gay laws, and releasing a targeted LGBT manifesto.