Singer, songwriter, and LGBT activist Cyndi Lauper today is campaigning to have the Senate pass a bill that would protect LGBT homeless youth.
In politics, everything is connected.
For nearly six months, Loretta Lynch has been waiting for the Senate to vote to confirm her as the nation’s next attorney general. But Senate Republicans decided to hold up her confirmation vote so they could pass a human trafficking bill that Democrats were totally fine with – until a few Democrats realized the Republicans had snuck an anti-abortion amendment into the bill.
Now that the two sides have somewhat worked things out, even though the bill may not include funding for abortion even in the case of rape, there are amendments that must be voted on.
Cyndi Lauper, who several years ago created the True Colors Fund to help homeless LGBT youth, is campaigning for an amendment to the anti-trafficking bill that, she says will help LGBT homeless youth.
“This afternoon, the U.S. Senate will decide if it will reauthorize the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, the nation’s only federal law that funds programs specifically for youth experiencing homelessness, and whether or not to include a non-discrimination clause that would protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth.”
In an open letter to Senators, she writes, “I strongly urge you to vote YES this afternoon in support of the bipartisan Leahy-Collins-Ayotte-Murkowski-Baldwin RHYA Amendment 290 and vote NO on the Cornyn Amendment 1127.”
Lauper says if the Senate does not, it “would be nothing short of a moral and ethical failure that will result in throwing away the 40% of our country’s homeless youth who are LGBT.”
And she’s offering some easy social media links you can use to tweet and post to Facebook:
Join Cyndi in telling the Senate to #PassRHYTPA now via Facebook and Twitter.
UPDATE – 3:31 PM EDT:Â
Since the publication of this article, the Senate voted on and did not pass the Leahy Amendment, failing LGBT homeless youth.
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Image via True Colors Fund