The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, has endorsed the presidential
campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The organization said that its 32
community leaders from across the nation had voted unanimously for
Clinton.
“Thank you, @HRC,” Clinton's
campaign tweeted.
Clinton is expected to accept the
group's endorsement on Sunday, January 24 at an event in Des Moines,
Iowa.
“All the progress we have made as a
nation on LGBT equality – and all the progress we have yet to make
– is at stake in November,” HRC President Chad Griffin said. “In
most states, LGBT people are still at risk of being fired, evicted or
denied services simply because of who they are. Today, 63 percent of
LGBT Americans report having experienced such discrimination, and we
are seeing other troubling trends, from the onslaught of state and
local anti-LGBT measures to the national scourge of anti-transgender
violence to backsliding on HIV/AIDS prevention and youth
homelessness. Against this backdrop, we’ve heard the leading
Republican presidential candidates repeatedly threaten to block our
progress, and to revoke, repeal, and overturn the gains we’ve made
during President Obama’s two terms.”
“While they fight to take us
backwards, Hillary Clinton is fighting to advance LGBT equality
across our nation and throughout the world. We are proud to endorse
Hillary Clinton for president, and believe that she is the champion
we can count on in November – and every day she occupies the Oval
Office,” he added.
In a two-and-a-half minute video
touting Clinton's record on LGBT rights, HRC lashed out at leading
Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz,
Senator Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Senator
Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee, saying that they “want to take us
backwards.”