Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin has
praised President Barack Obama's record on gay rights.
If Baldwin, 50, wins her U.S. Senate
race against Republican front-runner Tommy Thompson, the former
governor of Wisconsin, she would become the nation's first openly gay
senator.
Speaking Saturday at the Dallas-Fort
Worth Federal Club's Spring 2012 Luncheon, Baldwin praised the
president's record on gay rights, saying he had done more to advance
the movement than any other president in history, gay weekly the
Dallas
Voice
reported.
But she added that the fight for equal
rights continues.
“We celebrate the increasing number
of same-sex marriages, but we continue to fight a well-organized and
well-financed opposition to equal marriage rights,” Baldwin told
attendees. “We celebrate every gay-straight alliance [student
club] and anti-bullying campaign in our schools, but we continue to
fight tragic cruelty that occurs to our children. We are on the
right path, but clearly we have far still to go.”
Baldwin added her voice to the growing
chorus of Democratic lawmakers voicing support for adding marriage
equality to the Democratic Party's 2012 platform.
“I certainly hope we do that,” she
told the paper. “I would say that I hope the platform in its
entirety is very strong on LGBT equality.”
(Related: Obama
campaign mum on adding gay marriage to platform.)