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Category: Human Rights Campaign

HRC Endorses U.S. Rep. Angie Craig for Reelection

Human Rights Campaign, Social & Civil Issues

Today, HRC announced the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Angie Craig for re-election.

Rep. Angie Craig, as one of seven openly LGBTQ members of the U.S. House and the first openly lesbian mother to be elected to Congress, has been one of the community’s most impactful and vocal supporters of the Equality Act — crucial bipartisan legislation that would finally provide clear, comprehensive non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people nationwide. Over the next year, HRC will devote significant resources to turning out the 658,000 Equality Voters across the state of Minnesota to ensure pro-equality, LGBTQ leaders like Rep. Craig remain in, or are elected to office.

“The voters of Minnesota’s 2nd district made a wise choice in electing Angie Craig to Congress in 2018. She’s hit the ground running as a champion for civil rights, for good paying jobs, and for accessible and affordable health care,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “Angie Craig’s success in Congress has helped show LGBTQ children and youth that they can aspire to any job in America regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Human Rights Campaign is proud to endorse Congresswoman Craig’s bid for reelection and we look forward to continuing to fight alongside her for full equality.”

“I’m honored to have the support of HRC. As the first LGBTQ mother in Congress, I know that having more voices represented only makes our nation stronger,” said Angie Craig, U.S. Representative for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. “We need all kinds of experiences and voices to be represented in order to move important policies, like the Equality Act, forward. It is my privilege to work with you to usher in a better future for the next generation.”

In the 2018 midterms, HRC helped register more than 32,000 voters and recruited more than 4,200 volunteers, who worked over 8,500 shifts and clocked more than 30,000 volunteer hours. In the critical final four days of the campaign, HRC staff and volunteers in get-out-the-vote efforts alone knocked on more than 80,000 doors, and held 36,400 conversations with voters at their doors and by phone on behalf of our endorsed candidates. HRC’s unprecedented grassroots mobilization represented an investment of approximately $26 million to recruit volunteers, mobilize constituents, register voters and grow the organization’s grassroots army in an all-out effort to pull the emergency brake on the hateful anti-LGBTQ agenda of the Trump-Pence administration and elect a Congress that would hold them accountable.

 

 Paid for by Human Rights Campaign PAC (www.hrc.org) and authorized by ANGIE CRAIG FOR CONGRESS

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SHAMEFUL: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee Signs Harmful Anti-LGBTQ Child Welfare Bill

Human Rights Campaign, Social & Civil Issues

Today, HRC condemned Tennessee Governor Bill Lee for signing HB 836, a bill that would allow child welfare organizations — including taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies — to turn away qualified Tennesseans seeking to care for a child in need, including LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents, married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other parents to whom the agency has a religious objection. 

“It’s disturbing that Governor Bill Lee signed legislation that will harm children in Tennessee,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “Elected officials should protect all of their constituents, not just some. Now, Tennessee has the shameful distinction of being the first state to pass an anti-LGBTQ bill into law this year. This bill does nothing to improve the outcomes for children in care, shrinks the pool of prospective parents and is a blatant attempt to discriminate against LGBTQ Tennesseans. With many months ahead in the Tennessee legislative session, Tennesseans should make their voices heard — loudly — to ensure that the legislature and Gov. Lee do not continue to target LGBTQ Tennesseans.” 

“As this bill becomes law, Tennessee’s LGBTQ community is worried about the introduction of even more discriminatory bills,” said Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project. “The Governor and the Legislature must put a stop to this kind of demeaning public policy.”

HB 836 could have a sweeping, harmful impact in child welfare services by enabling discrimination against LGBTQ people, same-sex couples, interfaith couples, single parents, married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other qualified parents to whom an agency has an objection. The biggest barrier to placing children with families is a lack of qualified prospective parents; having the state give contractors and subcontractors a license to discriminate, thereby limiting the pool of prospective parents for no legitimate reason, is unconscionable and an unacceptable use of taxpayer dollars. 

HRC recently released a report, titled Disregarding the Best Interest of the Child: License to Discriminate In Child Welfare Services, detailing the harms of efforts to write anti-LGBTQ discrimination by child welfare agencies into law. Statistics suggest that an estimated two million LGBTQ adults in the U.S. are interested in adoption, but the LGBTQ community often remains an untapped resource when it comes to finding families for children and youth in foster care.

Research consistently shows that LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in the foster care system, as many have been rejected by their families of origin because of their LGBTQ status, and are especially vulnerable to discrimination and mistreatment while in foster care. HB 836 will only exacerbate these challenges faced by LGBTQ young people.

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