Hillary Clinton and HRC President Chad Griffin | Photo: Ward Morrison/Metro Weekly
Some might say this was inevitable: The Human Rights Campaign today endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. (Scroll down to take our poll as to who you’d like to see as the Democratic nominee.)
In a statement, HRC president Chad Griffin noted that “we are preparing to put the full force of the Human Rights Campaign behind a pro-equality candidate who will be our next champion in the White House,” adding that the organization will be “launching an unprecedented effort over the next nine months to register, organize, and mobilize the nation’s pro-equality majority for Hillary Clinton and other key supportive candidates on the ballot this year.”
He continues, “In the time since she became the very first First Lady to march in a pride parade, she has led on bills to protect LGBT workers from employment discrimination, advanced hate crimes legislation, pushed for greater HIV/AIDS prevention and funding, and worked to extend partner benefits. As Secretary of State, she did more to advance LGBT equality as a pillar of U.S. foreign policy than any other diplomat in history, giving a landmark speech to the United Nations declaring that ‘gay rights are human rights.’ She helped lead the United Nations to pass the first-ever U.N. resolution on the human rights of LGBT people, and created the Global Equality Fund to advance the rights of LGBT people around the globe.”
Immediately following the announcement, Clinton released a statement, thanking the organization that shares her initials.
“I’m honored to receive the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign—the nation’s largest organization working to achieve full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans. Thanks to the Human Rights Campaign and millions of advocates across the country, we’ve made tremendous progress. But our work is far from over. Too many LGBT Americans still face discrimination — in employment, in housing, in education, in health care — because of who they are or who they love. And the stakes in this election couldn’t be higher. The Republican candidates for president have not only hurled hateful, insulting rhetoric about the LGBT community — they’ve made it clear that if elected, they will roll back the rights that so many have fought for.
“As President, I will continue to fight alongside the LGBT community to pass the Equality Act. I’ll support efforts to allow transgender personnel to serve openly, and I’ll end the dangerous practice of ‘conversion therapy’ on minors. I’ll expand access to HIV prevention and treatment, and confront the epidemic of violence facing the transgender community, especially transgender women of color. And I’ll continue the efforts I led as Secretary of State to advance the human rights of LGBT people around the world.
“I’m proud to stand with the Human Rights Campaign in this fight. Together, we can and will make our country—and our world—more just, fair, and equal for generations to come.”
Police in York, Pennsylvania, have arrested 22-year-old Devin Harbaugh on charges of aggravated assault and strangulation. He is accused of choking a drag performer outside Gift Horse Brewing Company on August 22 in an attack that allegedly targeted three people for their perceived sexual orientation and gender expression.
According to police affidavits, Harbaugh and the victim -- identified as drag performer Sible Sible Stackhouse, known to friends as Vayne Disharoon -- were both at Gift Horse that night when an altercation broke out between their friend groups.
Police in Paris, France, have arrested a homeless Tunisian migrant accused of killing four men whose bodies were later found in the Seine River. The case began on August 13, when a commuter spotted a corpse floating in the river. Investigators subsequently recovered three more bodies from the same stretch of water.
Autopsies confirmed all four victims were men. At least two had been strangled, though forensic experts could not determine the exact cause of death for the others, according to The Times. Police are investigating the four deaths as homicides.
Laura Loomer, the far-right influencer with close ties to President Donald Trump, claimed during a deposition in her defamation lawsuit against HBO that sources close to the former president told her U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is gay.
Loomer is suing the network over comments by comedian Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher, who joked that she had an affair with Trump. She alleges Maher's on-air remark about her "sleeping with Trump" -- echoing a rumor circulating at the time -- cost her a job in the Trump administration and the political influence that would have come with it. HBO has argued that Maher's comment is protected under the First Amendment, just as Loomer's own inflammatory remarks are shielded when she targets her political enemies.
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