WASHINGTON, DC — Proclaiming “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” President Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term on Monday, declaring his allegiance and intent to promote a progressive policy agenda.

“We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate,” the President declared.

“If we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” Obama, 51, told the assembled estimated crowd of 600,000 that had gathered on the National Mall in front of the Capitol.

The President said that “our generation’s task” is to establish true “life and liberty” for every American. He also acknowledged the still-remaining deep divides in national politics.

“Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life,” he offered. “It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness.”

“Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time,” added Obama, who took the oath of office for a second time on Monday, after fulfilling his constitutionally-mandated requirement that he be sworn in by noon on January 20.

After that first swearing in ceremony, the President trumpeted the shift in America towards a more progressive outlook, and said of those who stand for antiquated ideas that “the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”

The president took his second inaugural oath on January 21, which this year also commemorated the day Americans honor the late civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

To mark the day and the occasion, Obama’s oath was administered by Chief Justice John Roberts while the President’s hand was placed on two Bibles: one that belonged to Dr. King and another formerly owned by President Abraham Lincoln.

To drive home his support for LGBT rights, the President selected as his inaugural poet openly-gay Cuban-American Richard Blanco, who was born in Cuba and raised in Miami, graduating with a master’s degree in Fine Arts from Florida International University.

Blanco, 44, delivered a 550 word poem entitled “One Today,” in which he described everyday American life as something greater than the sum of its parts, invoking images such as “silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us, on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives.”