The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) on
Thursday endorsed President Barack Obama for re-election.
The nation's largest gay rights group
offered its endorsement in a statement posted on its website.
“President Obama has improved the
lives of LGBT Americans more than any president in history. In 2008
we were promised change and profound change is what we got. More
remains to be done and ensuring that President Obama is able to
continue the forward momentum toward equality for another term is an
absolute priority of the Human Rights Campaign,” said HRC President
Joe Solmonese.
In its endorsement, the group singled
out four major achievements of Obama's first term, including signing
into law repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” and a gay-inclusive
hate crimes law, concluding that portions of the Defense of Marriage
(DOMA) are unconstitutional, and requiring hospitals nationwide to
adopt gay friendly visitation policies.
“From signature achievements like
passage of the law to end 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' to administrative
changes throughout government, President Obama has done more to
improve the lives of LGBT people than any president in history,”
the group said.
HRC's admittedly early endorsement
rankled gay Republicans.
“Today, the Human Rights Campaign
chose to endorse Barack Obama's re-election even though the field
running for president in 2012 isn't even set yet,” said Jimmy
LaSalvia, the executive director of gay GOP group GOProud. “This
pre-emptive endorsement ends HRC's charade of bipartisanship.”
“LGBT people who are interested in
putting policy before partisanship now know that HRC is little more
than a puppet of the Democratic National Committee and an
organization that has one goal – to elect more Democrats.”