President Barack Obama has assembled a dream civil rights team. We can expect profound changes from this administration.

The team begins with the president himself, a law professor whose background in civil rights law and advocacy is simply unparalleled by any former U.S. president. The co-captain of the team is his wife, Michelle, herself a Harvard law graduate. Then there’s Vice President Joe Biden, also a law professor, who taught constitutional law and served for years as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee as a loyal advocate for equality. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a Yale law graduate who devoted years of service advocating on behalf of children’s rights.

Attorney Janet Napolitano, who will serve as head of Homeland Security, and Eric Holder, who will be the U.S. Attorney General, both served under Attorney General Janet Reno, who was very supportive of gay rights. Serving as Solicitor General will be Elena Kagan, who has served as Dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan has been a prominent advocate on behalf of gay equality. She will serve as the administration’s voice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Many expect that she may be on the short list for an opening on the Supreme Court.

Just as key will be Dawn Johnsen, who will serve as Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel, an obscure but incredibly important department of 25 lawyers who advise the executive agencies. Johnsen served as acting head of the agency during the Clinton years. She was instrumental in helping to blunt the then-Republican-controlled Congress and a number of anti-gay measures, the most significant of which was a federal law requiring the military to discharge all HIV-positive personnel. Johnsen, a former chief litigator for a pro-choice group, will play a pivotal role on major GLBT issues. She should opine that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, at least as applied to same-sex couples who have children, and that federal laws prohibiting sex bias apply to sexual orientation claims.

No one in these key roles is openly gay or lesbian. But they are all unabashedly pro-gay and the best persons to move this country ahead in the arena of civil rights.

By way of contrast, compare the Justice Department under George W. Bush, headed by John Ashcroft, who spent $20,000 to drape a nude statue in the Justice building, and who could not dance at political functions because dancing violated his religious beliefs. Ashcroft prohibited a gay employee group from continuing to use Justice Department facilities, and immigration judges appointed by him failed to fairly apply immigration asylum laws to GLBT refugees. Meanwhile, he conducted sectarian prayers in the halls of the Justice Department and his Office of Legal Counsel opined that it was lawful to torture (via “enhanced interrogation techniques”) uncharged American citizens.

Yes, it is a new day in America. But despite the extreme disparity between the Obama and Bush administrations, the latter did not necessarily turn back the clock on gay rights.

Vice President Cheney publicly deplored discrimination against gays and lesbians. He made this known in 1991 when he served as defense secretary under former President George H.W. Bush and the right wing called for him to fire his deputy in charge of public affairs, Pete Williams, whom a magazine had “outed.” Cheney said he had been aware of Williams’ sexual orientation when he appointed him, and he contended it was “irrelevant” because Williams was the best candidate for the position. He made his position known again in 2000, when then-President George W. Bush selected Cheney as his running mate and the right wing protested because Cheney had a lesbian daughter, Mary, whom he publicly acknowledged and defended. The right wing knew its dream of a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage would be sunk and called it sinful when Mary and her partner announced their pregnancy. Nevertheless, Cheney said he was “delighted,” and after his grandson was born, he beamed in White House photos.