Tag: HRC

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Human Rights Campaign: “Love Trumps Hate”

From the Human Rights Campaign:

There is so much at stake for the LGBTQ community in the 2016 presidential election. Think of all the progress we’ve made under President Obama’s leadership and what could be rolled back, including:

• Historic support from the Administration for nationwide marriage equality,
• The end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”
• Non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ employees of federal contractors,
• Landmark hate crimes legislation,
• Greater visibility for transgender people,
• President Obama’s call for an end to abusive practice of “conversion therapy,”
• The Administration’s support for LGBTQ students,
• Support for HIV prevention and affordable treatment.

This election year, everything we’ve fought for is on the line. Donald Trump has spewed vitriol about marriage equality, people of color, women, immigrants and more.

In the words of Hillary Clinton, “Cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.”

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News Round-Up: May 16, 2016

NFL’s first out football player Michael Sam with my hubby Michael Caprio at 2016 Las Vegas HRC gala

Some stories you may have missed:

• My hubby Michael Caprio had “a moment” with the handsome Michael Sam (pic above) at the Las Vegas Human Rights Campaign gala this past Saturday night.

• The U.S. Supreme Court refuses a case that could have sabotaged the Obama administration’s transgender policy.

• RuPaul explains drag culture to ABC News: “There are aspects of your personality that you don’t even know about until you get into drag.”

• Ivanka Trump, with a straight face, says her father Donald Trump has “elevated” political discourse. #SRSLY

• Rep. Alan Grayson becomes the first U.S. congressman to use the term “cisgender” on the floor of the House of Representatives.

• Madonna’s REBEL HEART TOUR is getting a Blu-Ray/DVD release sometime around July!

• Just in time for LGBT Pride month, Converse debuts it’s 2016 Pride Collection. We got your high tops, your low tops, your black, your white… #DiversityRocks

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Human Rights Campaign Advocates For LGBT Supreme Court Justice

Today in an op-ed for The Advocate, HRC President Chad Griffin called on President Obama to build on his legacy of LGBT equality by nominating an openly LGBT Supreme Court justice.

From Griffin’s op-ed:

If the president truly wanted to be bold and bring in greater diversity to the bench, he could look to the LGBT leaders outside of the federal judiciary. We can look to our publicly elected officials for brilliant legal minds who have fought for LGBT equality on behalf of their constituents. Like Senator Tammy Baldwin, the first elected openly-LGBT U.S. Senator who introduced the Equality Act in the Senate. Or Oregon Governor Kate Brown, who championed a ban on so-called “conversion therapy” in the state, protecting LGBT children. Or Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who spearheaded the state’s challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. These elected officials bring experience to the bench not only as members of the LGBT community, but as people with legislative and federal experience that has largely lacked from previous Supreme Court justices. And of course, there are more qualified candidates from across the legal and political realms whose lived experiences as being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender would inform their time on the bench.

Despite the overwhelming support for full LGBT equality, millions in our community are still at risk of discrimination and violence in their daily lives all across the country.

It is time for an openly LGBT justice on our Supreme Court who will both affirm and symbolize our country’s commitment to full legal equality for its LGBT citizens.’

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Human Rights Campaign Joins Hillary Clinton On The Campaign Trail

Following last week’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president by the Human Rights Campaign (the vote by all 32 members of the Board of Directors was unanimous), the HRC has now joined Clinton on the campaign trail.

Speaking on from the stage of a huge rally in Des Moines, Iowa, with Clinton, HRC President Chad Griffin said:

“She doesn’t just voice her support, or vote her support for our community, she has been our partner in this fight and always willing to go to battle when we need her.”

“She has the experience and the determination and the skills that will allow her to make meaningful change from the moment she walks into the Oval Office.”

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Bernie Sanders Complains About HRC Endorsement Of Hillary Clinton

Yesterday, the Human Rights Campaign – the largest LGBT advocacy organization in the country – officially endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president.

This news did not sit well with her current opponent for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who – to be fair – has also been an ally to the LGBT community for years, just as Hillary Clinton has.

Planned Parenthood also chose to endorse Clinton.

Appearing on MSNBC last night he opined:

“What we are doing in this campaign — and it just blows my mind every day, because I see it clearly, we’re taking on not only Wall Street and the economic establishment, we’re taking on the political establishment.”

“And so I have friends and supporters in the Human Rights Fund, in Planned Parenthood,” Sanders continued. “But you know what, Hillary Clinton has been around there for a very, very long time and some of these groups are, in fact, part of the establishment.”

THAT comment didn’t sit well with Hillary Clinton, who immediately tweeted:

Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign both responded on twitter Wednesday morning to Sanders’ criticism.

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Human Rights Campaign Endorses Hillary Clinton For President

Human Rights Campaign Endorses Hillary Clinton For President

The Human Rights Campaign has endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president.

Via press release:

Out on the campaign trail, we’ve seen Secretary Clinton fight back against Republicans threatening to block our progress – and revoke, repeal, and overturn the gains made during President Obama’s two terms. Just as she has fought for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people as First Lady, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State.

In the time since she became the very first First Lady to march in a pride parade, she has led on bills to protect LGBT workers from employment discrimination, advanced hate crimes legislation, pushed for greater HIV/AIDS prevention and funding, and worked to extend partner benefits. As Secretary of State, she did more to advance LGBT equality as a pillar of U.S. foreign policy than any other diplomat in history, giving a landmark speech to the United Nations declaring that “gay rights are human rights.” She helped lead the United Nations to pass the first-ever U.N. resolution on the human rights of LGBT people, and created the Global Equality Fund to advance the rights of LGBT people around the globe.

As a candidate for president, Hillary Clinton has made LGBT equality a pillar of her campaign, and recently unveiled the most robust and ambitious LGBT agenda any candidate for president has ever laid out. She has vowed to fight for the Equality Act – a bill that would finally offer explicit, clear, and permanent nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people at the federal level — and her detailed LGBT agenda specifically calls for dropping the ban on open transgender military service, outlawing dangerous conversion therapy for minors, ending the epidemic of anti-transgender violence and supporting HIV prevention and affordable treatment, among other proposals that would advance equality and support the LGBT community.

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Vice-President Joe Biden Calls For Passage Of The Equality Act Speaking At Human Rights Campaign Dinner

Giving robust and unequivocal support to the LGBT community, Vice-President Joe Biden delivered the keynote address at last night’s Human Rights Campaign gala in Washington, D.C. last night.

Via Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade:

Vice President Joseph Biden, who delivered the keynote address at the dinner, touted the significance of the court ruling on marriage, but also turned toward other issues relevant to the LGBT community.

“The great arc of justice is the journey of this nation, and it continues to move in the right direction,” Biden said. “We’re moving closer and closer to the animating spirit of America because of all of you, not me, because of all of you.”

Although he’s previously articulated support for comprehensive legislation prohibiting anti-LGBT legislation, Biden took the opportunity of his speech to explicitly endorse the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

“I strongly support the Equality Act, and it will pass, it will pass,” Biden said. “It may not pass this Congress. It will pass because it’s simple and it’s straightforward.”

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Human Rights Campaign Responds To Pope Francis/Kim Davis “Meeting”

The Human Rights Campaign issued a statement regarding news reports that allege Pope Francis met privately last week with Kim Davis, the Rowan County, Ky., county clerk who continues to violate the law by refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

From the Human Rights Campaign:

“We hope that this is just a troubling mistake, but if these reports are true, this is a disappointing end to a historic trip,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “It would come as a shock to all those who were inspired by Pope Francis’s call for greater tolerance and inclusion if he were to lend support to a public employee who has become synonymous with discrimination against LGBT people. And, it would be most disappointing to the dozens of LGBT faithful who gathered to welcome Pope Francis to Washington, D.C., and whose request for a meeting was declined.”

HRC invited Pope Francis to meet with LGBT Catholics during his recent visit to Washington, DC. The Pope, who participated in a prayer service across the street from the organization’s headquarters last Wednesday, was asked to join more than 100 LGBT Catholics and staff who gathered to welcome him to the city. HRC also hung a banner on the side of its building asking Pope Francis to embrace LGBT Catholics and put a stop to Archdioceses and Bishops in the United States that have fired capable, faithful LGBT employees.

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Hillary Clinton Set To Address Human Rights Campaign At Fall Board Meeting

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton will address the staff, board and volunteer leaders of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, on October 3rd.

From Buzzfeed:

Calling Clinton a “visionary leader,” HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement announcing the address that the former secretary of state “is a tremendous advocate for equality and has been a tireless champion for the advancement of LGBT rights as human rights around the globe.”

Griffin said that Clinton will be joining the group at its fall board meeting “to discuss the challenges ahead in the fight for full federal equality” for LGBT people. Clinton’s address will come the morning of its national dinner.

The group is yet to endorse a presidential candidate.

Griffin has a long association with the Clinton’s having begun his political career working on the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.