Hillary Clinton Wraps Up Month Focused On LGBT Issues By Releasing Major Policy Plan

The Hillary Clinton campaign did a major push on LGBT issues this month, finishing with an unrivaled LGBT policy plan. 

In the lead up to Saturday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton this month has sought to outdo her opponent on LGBT issues, perhaps to counter charges from Bernie Sanders supporters that he was for marriage equality before she was.

The campaign released an ad featuring several same-sex couples from previous campaign videos that renewed her promises to the LGBT community. It also reminded them that back in 2011 as Secretary of State she announced that “Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.” Clinton made that declaration before she or any top Obama administration official announced support for same-sex marriage.

The 60-second spot also focused on some of the ten promises Clinton made to the LGBT community at a speech she delivered to the Human Right Campaign (HRC) in September.

Those promises are the foundation of a major policy plan Clinton released Thursday, that Kate Kendell, the Executive Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) embraced as “a bold vision.”  

LGBT news sites are calling it “pretty major,” “extensive,” and even “an awesome gay agenda.”

The Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson reports the Human Rights Campaign “said the proposal ‘puts in stark relief what’s at stake in this coming presidential election.'” 

Johnson notes that Clinton’s “document announces a few new initiatives, including ending ‘ex-gay’ conversion therapy for minors; expanding the utilization of HIV prevention medications, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); and supporting efforts in the courts and federal government to clarify under federal statutes ‘sex discrimination’ constitutes discrimination on the basis of ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation.'”

For transgender rights, Clinton pledges to protect transgender people from violence in a record year record for murders throughout the country; streamline processes to allow transgender people to change their gender marker on identification documents; and educate police officers on identifying bias-motivated crimes.

Clinton’s broad LGBT policy, titled, “Fighting for Full Equality for LGBT People,” also includes the promise to “Work with Congress to pass the Equality Act” by amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “Continue President Obama’s LGBT equality executive actions,” and “Combat youth homelessness.” 

The Clinton campaign also posted several LGBT related tweets this month, including these:

Sandwiched in between Clinton’s LGBT ad and her LGBT policy, the campaign this week launched LGBT for Hillary. In a conference call, Ricky Martin and Billie Jean King announced their support for Clinton and her work on LGBT issues.

Martin said, “listening to the Republican Party is the scariest thing that me as a gay man and a Latino man is facing at the moment,” the Washington Blade reported.

“What happens with Hillary is that she makes me feel comfortable, she makes me feel protected,” Martin said. “I listen to her on the debates, and she’s just real, she’s honest, she’s classy…and it makes me feel completely at ease when I listen to her speak. As a gay man, what she brings to the table is what I want for me, for my kids, for my family.”

Billy Jean King called it “an opportunity to bring all of ourselves, our heads, our hearts and our guts to making sure Hillary Clinton wins on Nov. 8.” King said. “It is so important. We cannot take this lightly. We can never, ever underestimate our opponents, the Republicans, others, and any time you start to sit back and think it’s going to be easy, it’s not.”

Jane Lynch also advocated for LGBT for Hillary:

 

Image by Brookings Institution via Flickr and a CC license