LGBT Celebrities, Law Makers Along With Groups Say They Will Help Kamala Harris
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| Then-Sen. Kamala Harris at the San Francisco Pride Parade in June 2019.David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images file |
By Jo Yurcaba
More than 1,100 LGBTQ celebrities, lawmakers, and leaders signed a letter released Wednesday by national LGBTQ rights groups endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential run.
The letter includes signatures from actors Matt Bomer, George Takei, Billy Eichner, and Sophia Bush and her partner, Ashlyn Harris, a former U.S. Women’s National Team soccer player. Out elected officials, including Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and Reps. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., Mark Takano, D-Calif., and Becca Balint, D-Vt., also signed, alongside notable figures such as Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015, and Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in Wyoming in 1998.
Harris has a two-decade track record of supporting gay rights, which is part of the reason LGBTQ advocacy groups, lawmakers, and celebrities have been vocal in backing the presidential hopeful. Some LGBTQ people, however, have taken issue with her record on trans rights and criminal justice issues.
During her time as a district attorney in San Francisco, Harris helped make California the first state in the country to ban the so-called gay/trans panic defense, which has allowed those accused of homicide to receive lesser sentences by saying they panicked after having found out a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity, the letter says.
She was also an early supporter of marriage equality. She officiated some of the nation’s first same-sex marriages in 2004. Then, in 2008, when she was California’s attorney general, she refused to defend Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage. In 2013, after a court allowed an injunction against Proposition 8 to stand, Harris officiated the first same-sex wedding in the state.
The letter notes that the Biden-Harris administration has been “the most pro-LGBTQ+ administration in history” and appointed a record number of LGBTQ people to federal positions, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first gay Cabinet secretary, and Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health, the first Senate-confirmed trans appointee and the highest ranking trans official in the federal government.
“With these strong LGBTQ+ policies in jeopardy because of Donald Trump, JD Vance, and the anti-LGBTQ+ Project 2025, electing Kamala Harris and defeating Donald Trump again is critical for the cause of equality,” the letter states, adding that the next president will have lasting impact on the country by filling any vacancies on the Supreme Court.
The letter was put together by LGBTQ advocacy groups Advocates for Transgender Equality, Alice B Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, Equality California, the Human Rights Campaign, LGBTQ Victory Fund, LPAC, and the National LGBTQ Task Force.
Nonetheless, some LGBTQ people have criticized Harris’ record on trans rights and other social issues.
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As attorney general, she worked to block a trans woman from receiving gender-affirming surgery in prison in 2015. At an LGBTQ presidential forum in Cedar Rapids Iowa in 2019, Harris said she worked behind the scenes to get the California Department of Corrections to change its policy denying trans inmates such care, The Advocate reported.
“I commit to you that always in these systems there are going to be these things that these agencies do. And I will commit myself, as I always have, to dealing with it,” Harris said at the forum.
Harris has also faced criticism for supporting FOSTA-SESTA, a 2018 bill package intended to hold websites accountable if they knowingly assist, support or facilitate sex trafficking. The laws led Craigslist to close its personal classified ads section and resulted in a number of other websites cracking down on sex workers who use their platforms to find clients.
LGBTQ people, and transgender people in particular, are more likely than the general population to participate in sex work for a variety of reasons. As a result, LGBTQ sex workers have been disproportionately affected by laws like FOSTA-SESTA, which is short for the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act.
In 2019, when Harris was a senator and running for president, she told The Root that she supported decriminalizing sex work but did not regret supporting FOSTA-SESTA.
Since she announced her candidacy Sunday, Harris has also faced backlash for supporting the Biden administration’s policies on the Israel-Hamas war.
“Kamala, you will have our votes when you end U.S. support of genocide in Gaza. Simple as that,” drag performer and activist Pattie Gonia wrote Monday on Instagram.
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