The Obama administration held its first LGBT conference of campaign season on Thursday in Philadelphia, focusing on health care issues in the LGBT community. 

The conference was headlined by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, who spoke on discrimination against LGBT people in matters of health like insurance coverage and federal surveys. She gave a similar speech before the National Coalition for LGBT Health in October. 

“Given the discrimination that often is faced in the workplace, LGBT Americans often have a harder time getting access to employment-based coverage,” Sebelius said at the conference, also attended by gay White House officials including Gautam Raghavan, the LGBT liaison in the Office of Public Engagement; and John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management.

But “all Americans, regardless of where they live, what age, sex, race, sexual orientation, or gender identity, have a basic right to get the health care they need here in the United States, and that’s a principle we are committed to fighting for in this administration,” Sebelius said. 

The Advocate.com article above includes more details on the conference itself and some of the background issues to be considered. A lot of people argue that Obama hasn’t done a great deal for the LGBT community so far, but personally I’m impressed that he’s standing for these kinds of conversations at a time when he’s being so strictly scrutinized. Not bad at all.