Samir Luther: Hillary's Goodbye (& Gender Equality)

I watched Hillary's speech on Saturday at the National Building Museum via CNN at my conference in Minneapolis. I normally get drawn into these speeches but from a purely political perspective; I want to hear what was not said more than what actually was said.

That being said, Hillary had my emotional attention from the moment she took the stage. It was the first time she truly spoke to me about the significance of her campaign with respect to gender equality in the United States. And her acknowledgment of the gay supporters of her campaign (see Associated Press video highlights of the speech below) -- not once, but twice -- managed to incite a surge of pride even in me, an Obama supporter.

We have a long way to go to attain gender equality, where men are equal to women and vice versa, in the United States (thinking of it merely as making women equal to men is insufficient, really -- think about paternity leave for fathers whose spouses are working, for example). But, as Hillary suggests, there are now 18 million little cracks in that glass ceiling.