"The LGBT community's progress is not only safe in her hands, it will continue."

[bigtree]

Hillary Clinton ?@HillaryClinton 21h21 hours ago
—@washblade endorsing Hillary:


Sen. Bernie Sanders has done the country a great service by shining a bright (if shrill) light on the entrenched problem of income inequality but his message failed to produce the revolution he sought and now it’s time for practicality to prevail.

While the Republicans have burned through 16 losing candidates and turned their party over to a racist, sexist bully with zero experience in elected office, the Democrats are still slugging it out — in May. This should be a time for Hillary Clinton’s victory lap, not a time for enduring more misguided attacks on her fitness for office from fellow Democrats.

Sanders deserves credit for running an effective campaign that caught the imagination of a younger generation tired of the status quo. His presence in the primaries has forced Clinton to up her game and sharpen her economic message. We owe him a big “thank you” for that.

But he has been mathematically eliminated from winning the nomination with pledged delegates. There simply is no credible path to victory. And the specter of what comes next should scare all voters into realizing the responsible thing for Sanders to do is to withdraw, endorse Clinton and start planning a national tour of college campuses to rally young voters to her side.

With Trump waiting in the wings, there is too much at stake to risk further damaging Clinton in the eyes of Sanders’s supporters, 25 percent of whom in a recent poll foolishly and naively said they would not vote for Clinton. Sanders must disabuse his followers of such self-destructive nonsense. Ralph Nader’s causes didn’t fare so well under George W. Bush. We mustn’t repeat the mistakes of third-party folly or pouty stay-at-home stubbornness.

The notion that Clinton is unqualified for the presidency, as Sanders has intimated, is absurd; Trump’s claims that she’d be soft on terrorism is at odds with her sometimes hawkish record.

On LGBT rights, Clinton was late to the marriage party but she has arrived — and there’s no turning back now. The time has come to forgive the many Democratic Party leaders who paid lip service to our issues for so long and move forward in this radically changed political environment in which anything but full-throated support for LGBT rights will not fly for any Democrat seeking the presidency. Clinton has pledged her full support for a range of LGBT causes. She even hired a gay campaign manager. Our progress is not only safe in her hands, it will continue.

Clinton has pledged to support the Equality Act, to allow transgender people to serve openly in the U.S. military and to end widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy for minors. In addition, she has said she would expand access to HIV prevention and treatment; confront disproportionate violence facing transgender people, especially trans women of color; and continue her work as former secretary of state on international LGBT rights. She has consistently raised LGBT issues during the primary season, making them a centerpiece of her campaign.

At risk of playing the “woman’s card,” we should also seize this historic opportunity to elect the nation’s first female president. I want my 11 nieces and nephews to grow up in a country where electing an African American or female president is no big deal. We’re halfway there.

Perhaps most importantly, we can trust her judgment in making at least one — and possibly multiple — Supreme Court picks. With Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat vacant amid unprecedented, reckless GOP obstructionism, and three more justices aged 77 or older, it is imperative that Trump not be allowed to put his stamp of ignorance and bigotry on the high court.

We’ve made stunning progress thanks to President Obama, but make no mistake that Trump can and would turn back the clock on our equality in myriad ways. First, Trump has pledged to immediately revoke President Obama’s executive orders, which would certainly include the order that bars discrimination against LGBT employees of federal contractors. That order covers about 20 percent of the entire American workforce and our advocates fought hard to get it implemented. The thrice-married Trump has also promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who would overturn the Obergefell ruling and end marriage equality.

He has endorsed the First Amendment Defense Act, a federal version of the so-called “religious freedom” bills that have emerged in North Carolina and elsewhere that would legalize discrimination against LGBT Americans from coast to coast.

The LGBT community cannot risk a Trump presidency.

Hillary Clinton has promised to continue President Obama’s fierce advocacy on LGBT issues. And she’s backed up those words with specific, detailed policy proposals. Further, she has a record now of advocating for LGBT people around the world as secretary of state. The Blade has interviewed scores of overseas activists and they routinely cite her Geneva speech in which she famously said, “gay rights are human rights” as a game changer. Make no mistake that her public stand in defense of gay rights abroad has saved lives.

The time has come to move past divisive fights of the past and rally around an ally who has pledged to put the full weight of her administration and bully pulpit into maintaining and advancing LGBT equality. Hillary Clinton is that ally and has earned LGBT support in November.


read: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2016/05/10/clinton-for-president/#sthash.1wngvT08.uxfs&st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/CHegOe0aG5

[rock]

1. I agree except

for praising Bernie, who in my opinion is a con-artist who has fleeced millions from his supporters, all legally AFAIK.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. I don't have a problem with the praising of Bernie ...

It's conciliatory, and reconciliation is needed to soothe hurt feelings.

[rock]

16. I already had that figured out

And don't disagree with the tact, but I am not fooled.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. May I take that as you are not exactly "Feeling the Bern" ?

[rock]

18. You may take it as so

But I really get a mean laugh out of "A future to believe in", as his is sinking into oblivion.

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. Video clip of the "Nancy Reagan Praise Eulogy" in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

[whatchamacallit]

5. I hope so. It's documented reality that counters the fiction of the OP.

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. No, it's not.

[whatchamacallit]

13. That's it?

[Bluenorthwest]

19. This is a thread for Straight Hillary supporters to bait LGBT critics of Hillary, they think AIDS

revisionism and celebrations of Ronald Reagan are valid forms of political discourse. They were thrilled when she said that crap about the Reagans and they adored that she was erasing LGBT history so boldly on TV, this is what they are hoping for. They are the Reagan Democrats after all and they were always thus.

[1StrongBlackMan]

21. Yep. That's it.

[ibegurpard]

8. indeed

[LexVegas]

4. In Bernies bizarro world, minorities are the establishment and white guy is the outsider. nt

[NCTraveler]

6. That really is a clear trend at this point. nt.

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. He's getting out ahead of the demographic curve. LOL.

[ibegurpard]

9. as long as

It doesn't stand in the way of corporate profits.

[NCTraveler]

12. Clinton gave us and our LGBQT brothers and sisters reason for concern...

at the funeral for Nancy and in some other poorly worded comments. I hope that everyone takes time to look at the excellent work she has done in the area of equality. Overall, I greatly appreciate that today she is one of the loudest and most recognizable leaders for equality. Not perfect by any means.

Thanks for sharing I enjoyed reading. I believe Clinton is the only current candidate that will continue the March toward equality. That isn't to say Sanders doesn't want to. It's simply he has no clout or respect to accomplish anything.

[ibegurpard]

14. I'm not your "brother"

And I don't buy her pandering for a second.

[NCTraveler]

17. I will and have fought for equality at every turn.

Republicans overall don't want me calling them my brothers and sisters either. I will still continue to fight for a minimum standard of living that will provide a level of comfort for all in need. We are humans. I don't need your approval to call them my brothers and sisters at all. Your approval is not a necessary component for me to continue my fight for equality. Your approval is not necessary for me to be a compassionate human.

I wish you the best and we will fight together for a more just society.

[NurseJackie]

20. Nicely done. That's ...

... about the only way to respond. (And I'll just leave it at that.)

[GreatGazoo]

15. Delusional

Here is some truth for you...

vs. Delusional: