Who is US presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz and where does she stand on LGBTQ+ rights?

The US presidential election is little more than two weeks away, and while most coverage has been focused on Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, there are others in the mix.

One of those is Claudia De la Cruz, a leftist activist for whom a visit to Cuba at the age of 17 inspired her opposition to imperialism. She is running under the banner for of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).

De la Cruz, who was born to immigrants from the Dominican Republic in New York, announced her run for the White House in September 2023, calling for a transformation of major political and economic structures.

That includes pledging to support reparations for Black Americans, a single-payer healthcare system, and an end all US economic aid to Israel. She has given a speech at a pro-Palestine protest outside the White House.

She has vowed to forgive all student loan debt, fully recognise Native American sovereignity and honour treaty rights, cut the US military budget by 90 per cent, expand public transport, and use taxation to eliminate billionaires.

De la Cruz and running mate Karina Garcia are also vocal supporters of queer rights, claiming that their campaign “stands for full equality for LGBTQ+ people in all areas of society”.

A post on X/Twitter reads: “In Pride month and every month, we must stand up and fight back against the bigots who seek to turn back the clock and rip up the rights of LGBTQ people and all oppressed people.”

If elected, she has vowed to push for immediate legislation at federal level to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, including protections in the workplace.

The candidates have also promised to repeal Don’t Say Gay laws and ensure that schools are “a supportive place for LGBTQ+ youth where all students are treated with respect and dignity”, to repeal legislation that criminalises trans youth and any transgender people seeking gender-affirming healthcare services, which, they said, “cynically calculate to create an atmosphere of hatred in society”.

Finally, they aim to combat hate crimes by ending “impunity for perpetrators of violence and initiating a massive public education campaign to counter the lies spread by the bigoted right wing”.

Although De la Cruz is aware that her prospects of winning the presidency are not high – the only “independent” to ever win the presidential election was Founding Father George Washington, in 1788 – she is optimistic about the trajectory of American politics.

Speaking to The Guardian, she said: “The only way that historically we’ve been able to transform anything in society is through struggle, through movement. Nothing that we have earned as working-class people in society has been granted to us by the benevolence of the ruling class: not voting rights, not access to the most basic human rights.

“People are tired… of broken promises.”

De la Cruz added that she and Garcia are “on the side of justice… on the side of people who are oppressed, who are colonised, who are exploited”.

The last independent to cause waves was billionaire Ross Perot who won 19 per cent of the popular vote – some 19.7 million people backed him – in 1992, but even that wasn’t enough to win him a single state.

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