WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton was introduced as a lifelong fighter for human rights and gay rights at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual breakfast Saturday morning, telling supporters of the LGBT rights group that she will fight against Republicans to push through legislation to ensure equality.
Speaking in front of donors, employees and members of the largest LGBT advocacy group in the nation, she pledged to end discrimination wherever it occurs if elected, as “a promise from one HRC to another.”
Touting her State Department career, Clinton reminded the crowd that she took steps to ban discrimination at the State Department, and extended equal benefits to the partners of employees.
Since launching her presidential campaign Clinton has been a proponent of equal rights for LGBT people, but as recentlly as two years ago, the Democratic candidate did not support full LGBT equality. Recently released emails from her time as secretary of state show Clinton resisting a change on American passports removing the terms “mother” and “father” in place of the more inclusive “Parent 1” and “Parent 2.” But this past June when the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land Clinton took celebrated the victory as her own.
“Thank you for your hard work and your courage and insisting that what is right is right. You’ve helped changed a lot of minds, including mine, and I’m very grateful for that,” Clinton told the group on Saturday morning.
The Democratic front-runner hit Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for his support of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis.
Huckabee has been “celebrating a county clerk who is breaking the law by denying Americans their constitutional rights,” she said. She also invited Republican presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to march in a gay pride parade because “he obviously doesn’t know what he’s missing.”
“We’re going to be hearing a lot from the folks on the other side, and I want to tell you believe what they say … If any one of them, god forbid, became president they are going to enact policies that will threaten you and your families,” Clinton warned. “So stakes in this election are high for the country and the progress we want to make but it can be undone.”
“The folks on the other side, you’ve got to give them credit, their persistence is admirable, but it’s hard to believe what they use it for,” she added.
Clinton went on to call on Congress to pass the Federal Equality Act, the Human Rights Campaign’s push for gay rights following the Supreme Court’s ruling for marriage equality, stating that “I hope many of you will be with me when I sign it into law.”
The Democratic front-runner took a comprehensive approach to her plan to wipe out discrimination, promising to reverse past dishonorable discharges for LGBT people in the military. She said she wants to allow transgender people to legally serve in the military, so that they don’t have to suppress their identity in order to serve the country. She also said she would cut off funding for any child welfare agency that discrimina
Vice President Joe Biden will headline the HRC’s annual dinner this evening as the keynote speaker. Reports say that Clinton was originally invited to do the keynote speech tonight, but she turned it down in order to appear on Saturday Night Live alongside Miley Cyrus.
