Michelle Obama tells how she tried to escape the White House to celebrate equal marriage ruling

When times are rough, we can always count on former first lady Michelle Obama to put a smile on our faces.

Sitting down with iconic lesbian talk show host Ellen DeGeneres to promote her new book, Becoming, Obama recalled the time that she tried to escape the White House with her daughter to celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2015.

On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had a constitutional right to marry, effectively legalising gay marriage nationwide. Crowds gathered outside the White House, which the Obamas had ensured was lit up in rainbow colours to send love to the LGBT+ community.

Michelle said:

When you're in the residence, there's so much bullet-proof glass that sometimes you don't hear what's going on outside

And we were having dinner and we were listening- we know there was a celebration happening but we didn't realise that thousands of people were gathering in front of the White House at that time to celebrate.

And my staff were calling me, everybody was celebrating, people were crying, and I thought, I want to be in that. Also, we had worked to make sure that the White House was lit up in the LGBT+ colours. It was beautiful.

So we had made that plan and I was sitting and watching it on TV and realising, I'm living this. I said, 'I have to break out of this. I want to go outside and I want to be a part of that celebration'

So I had the bright idea, I'm going outside.

Michelle asked her husband, former president Barack Obama, if he would like to go out, but he was too busy. Her daughter Sasha didn’t want to tag along, but Malia finally agreed. After unsuccessfully trying to evade security and escape, the pair finally made it outside.

But eventually, the happy news was that we got out.

Malia and I walked outside. It took 15 minutes to get outside. And we stood along with all the cheering crowd, off to the side, mind you, so no one would see us, with security surrounding us, and we tried to have our tender mother-daughter moment.

But we just took it in. I held her tight and my feeling was, we are moving forward. Change is happening.

H/T: E Online

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