Obama Issues Executive Order Forbidding Anti-Gay Discrimination by Federal Contractors

President Barack Obama signed an executive order Monday prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of gender identify and sexual orientation, winning praise from LGBT rights groups and fulfilling a longtime promise to Democratic activists.

"Thanks to your passionate advocacy and the irrefutable rightness of your cause, our government -- a government of the people, by the people and for the people -- will become just a little bit fairer," Obama told supporters at the White House.