Determination gets you a long way.

He has always provided me a safe place to land and a hard place from which to launch.

I'd ask myself, 'What do I think is really unjust?' That should be a starting point for how you engage with the world.

My parents always asked me what I thought, listened to my opinions, articulated their diagnoses of our challenges at home and abroad, and shared their ideas for how to build a more equal and prosperous country. I always felt part of their call to serve and part of my father's journey.

That's not what I want my children to hear. That's not representative of the country that I want my children to grow up in. And so that actually I found far more upsetting as a mom, as a woman, as an American, and even as my mother's daughter than anything they said about my mom.

I've always been incredibly proud of both of my parents and proud of the work I had done privately as a person, professionally and academically.

My mother has often said that the issue of women is the unfinished business of the 21st century. That is certainly true. But so, too, are the issues of LGBT rights the unfinished business of the 21st century.