Vice President Kamala Harris spoke
Saturday at the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) National Dinner in D.C.
HRC's largest annual fundraiser was
held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Harris was introduced by incoming HRC
President Kelley Robinson, who officially takes the helm on November
28.
“This next chapter of HRC is going to
center on liberty and equality for all, with no exceptions,” she
told the crowd.
Harris was scheduled to share the stage
with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California.
Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, 82, was
violently attacked on Saturday by an intruder at the couple's house
in San Francisco. Nancy Pelosi was in Washington at the time. The
attacker has since told police that he broke into the couple's house
looking for Nancy Pelosi and was prepared to break her kneecaps if
she “lied” to him.
The attack “speaks to what HRC stands
for, which is the work that we will still need to do to fight hate,”
Harris said, adding that there is no place for political violence in
America.
Harris vowed to fight the “powerful
forces trying to take our country backwards,” saying that an
“epidemic of hate” has gripped the nation.
“The very existence of LGBTQ+ people
is under assault,” she added.
HRC, the nation's largest LGBTQ rights
advocate, honored Emmy winner Sheryl Lee Ralph at the event, handing
her its National Ally for Equality Award, and the Prime Video series
A League of Their Own with its National Visibility Award.
Stars Abbi Jacobson and Chanté
Adams accepted the award on behalf of the series.