If all these things happen I'll be glad. My only problem with President Obama's agenda on LGBT issues is that separate is not equal.

However I've heard him say, in an interview as a presidential candidate, that history may show he was on the wrong side of the gay marriage issue. I think he knows that the just and correct outcome is for marriage between homosexuals to be legally equal in every way to marriage between heterosexuals. But I don't think he's overcome the traditionalist within himself on this issue.

In the mean time, we're going to have a president whose policy is that we should legalize civil unions that grant all the same rights and privileges as marriages do. It's a huge step in the right direction: it takes care of practical matters of equal rights while, admittedly, deferring much of the moral struggle.

My background is in the sciences, and I couldn't be happier with Steven Chu as Energy Secretary, and with the members of the science and technology team. These are first-rate scientists. A+.