Pink House: White House To Become 'Pink House' For Breast Cancer Month

WASHINGTON — The White House became the "Pink House" Thursday night for breast cancer awareness.

President Barack Obama announced via Twitter earlier in the day that the building will be bathed in pink light Thursday, just for one night.

Obama signed a proclamation at the beginning of the month designating October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Last October, the Obamas hung a large pink ribbon on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House.

The American Cancer Society says there are roughly 40,000 breast cancer deaths each year in the U.S.

The main entrance to Vice President Joe Biden's official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory also was to be lit in pink Thursday night.

Comments

[Craig Cooper]

03:31 PM on 10/19/2010

Last month when representatives of ZERO and Prostate Cancer Foundation were in Washington for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month the White House refused to light itself blue> The numbers for breast and prostate cancer are similar http://www.prostate.net/blog/2010/prostate-cancer-statistics/ so what gives?

[copelli21]

10:41 AM on 10/19/2010

I don't mean to be cynical but, WHERE IS THE CURE?

We've pink ribboned everybody and everything. You can't escape Susan G. Komen if you tried.

Where is the progress? The medical community is STILL debating on when women should start having mammograms and the frequency.

It seems breast cancer has become quite a profitable business for many.

I am just saying.

[raker]

07:29 PM on 10/17/2010

A pink ribbon is swell on a person's lapel, but not on The White House. Take it down.

[rougebaisers]

01:10 PM on 10/15/2010

You know, cancer sucks. All cancer sucks, and I think it's great that they pink up the white house, but WHY JUST FOR BREAST CANCER? Let's take the #2 cancer, Colorectal Cancer. March is CCC awareness month yet there is not a CCC blue star put in place for this harsh cancer. What makes it more odd is that we have African Americans in the white house and AAs are 30% more likely to get CCC and if they get CCC they are 30% more likely to DIE from that cancer. Pink is fine for now, but make March blue.

[nancynancy]

12:59 PM on 10/15/2010

Very bad move. Pllease take the pink ribbon down, Mr. President. Big pharma and the breast cancer industry have spread myths, lies and half truths about this disease for too many years. To learn more, see Dr. Epstein's article, Breast Cancer Unawareness Month posted today in the Huff Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samuel-s-epstein/the-breast-cancer-unaware_b_754641.html

[Lakesideboy]

02:50 PM on 10/14/2010

I understand the concern for breast cancer and the media coverage has been pretty overwhelming and astounding. The Susan Komen foundation must have billions to work with by now and I sincerely hope that most of that money is used for research and not for executive compensation.

However, have we forgotten about the most serious disease affecting the world? AIDS. This has not gone away by any means and needs to be addressed even moreso than breast cancer (or PAWS for petes sake.....).

[zaggy]

04:27 PM on 10/14/2010

Aids is so Eighties !

[noladebby]

04:31 PM on 10/14/2010

Oh please. Put on a condom, stop sleeping around, don't do drugs and share needles. SOLVED. Now back to breast cancer.

[cchelle]

04:14 PM on 10/15/2010

tell that to a innocent child that has it

[Gutts]

01:54 PM on 10/14/2010

How sweet.