Hillary Clinton hits out at ‘striking and scary’ anti-LGBT attacks by Trump administration
Hillary Clinton has once again hit out at the Trump Administration for its record on LGBT+ rights.
Clinton said the attacks on th LGBT+ community in the first nine months of the Trump Administration have been “striking and scary”.
She said “we have some tough battles ahead”, speaking at the national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign.
“The attacks on the LGBT community here at home and around the world are striking and scary. I can only imagine what it’s like to be in the position that so many people still find themselves in in our country,” Clinton said.
“I do know what it feels like to be torn down and attacked and I want you to know that I’m with you,” she added.
Going on, Clinton attacked plans to roll back funding to Medicare and Medicaid, saying it would affect vulnerable communities the most.
She also attacked Trump’s ban on transgender troops from serving in the military.
CHELTENHAM, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 15: Hillary Clinton is interviewed by Mariella Frostrup (not pictured) at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on October 15, 2017 in Cheltenham, England. The former US secretary of state and 2016 American presidential candidate yesterday received an honorary doctorate from Swansea University. She is also visiting the UK to promote her new book “What Happened”. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
Clinton added: “You know and [Trump] knows that transgender people have fought and died for this country.”
She said it is “insulting and wrong” for the Trump administration to suggest otherwise.
“We cannot rely on this administration or the Supreme Court to uphold LGBT rights,” Clinton continued.
“We need to be agitating to pass the Equality Act.”
Check out the speech below:
The former Democratic Presidential nominee last month made a beautiful tribute to the late LGBT+ activist Edie Windsor at her funeral.
Windsor died in September at the age of 88 after spending years fighting for marriage equality.
Clinton told the crowd that Windsor had left a “positive lasting influence on our country and the world” and that she was “honoured” to speak at the funeral.
She started: “When I think of Edie, I think of that line from A midsummer night’s dream ‘and thought she be but little, she is fierce’.
“She was fierce. She helped change hearts and minds including mine. She refused to give up on the promise of America.
“There wasn’t a cynical, defeatist bone in her body. Through her determination and sheer force of will, she brought us another step closer to a perfect union. it is up to all of us to pick up where she left off.”
Clinton went on to say that going forward in the fight for LGBT+ equality, we should remember Windsor and her courage in taking on the US Government.
“We really owe it to her to ensure as I’ve said before that gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights now and forever.
“It’s easy to grow weary fighting these fights but remember Edie Windsor took on and won against the US government. She pushed us all to be better, stand taller, dream bigger. Because of her, people came out, marched in their first Pride parade, married the love of their life.
Clinton finished the moving tribute by thanking Windsor for “filling us with a sense of possibility” and urging those at the funeral to live as vivaciously as she once did.
Related: Same-sex marriage legend Edith Windsor dies at 88
“So thank you Edie, thank you for being a beacon of hope, for proving that love is more powerful than hate, for filling us with a sense of possibility and promise as we answer the question posed by Mary Oliver, ‘tell me what it is you plan to do with your own one wild and precious life?’.
“Let us continue to be inspired by Edie’s wild and precious life and let us make her proud every day of how we answer that question ourselves. Thank you, Edie.”
NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 30: Edie Windsor, who successfully sued the United States government in a court case that went to the Supreme Court for banning gay marriage in California, waves to revelers while riding in the New York Gay Pride Parade on June 30, 2013 in New York City. This year’s parade was a particularly festive occasion, due to the recent Supreme Court Ruling that it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Windsor was the lead plaintiff in the 2013 case which led to the striking down of the Defense of Marriage Act effectively giving recognition to same-sex marriage in 13 states and the District of Columbia.
This led to a wider 2015 ruling which legalised same-sex marriage in all 50 states.
US President Barack Obama holds hands with Edie Windsor after she introduced him during the Democratic National Committee LGBT Gala at Gotham Hall on June 17, 2014 in New York, New York. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
The Supreme Court later bolstered the rulings of two lower courts in a 5-4 ruling, which states that nobody should be “deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”
