There’s no denying that Clinton is cautious, and that applied double to us. But once she made the leap, much like the president, she was all in, as her State Department record shows. That’s particularly important in this election, because the next president has the opportunity to press LGBT issues as a human rights cause–which is the explicit link that Clinton made in her landmark UN speech. Now that she’s embraced us unreservedly, she seems to be enjoying herself, as she did at New York City’s pride parade last June.
Gay issues haven’t been much of a focus in the current election cycle, but insofar as they have been, it’s because Clinton keeps bringing them up. The Democratic National Convention was rife with pro-gay comments. Clinton has kept that theme in her campaign speeches and in the debates. Just last week, at an appearance in North Carolina, she criticized the state’s antigay law. In the third debate,she made preserving marriage equality a key goal of her Supreme Court choices.
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Clinton has a nice record of sending messages to folks who are facing everyday cruelty for being trans or gay. There was the Facebook message to the trans woman assaulted on a New York City subway. There was the reassuring message to the unhappy teen struggling with being gay. Clinton is also good at celebrating people doing the hard work of activism: there was the personal letter to a lesbian couple congratulating them on their marriage and for their work on behalf of the It Gets Better project.
Look at the stalwarts lining up behind Donald Trump. Many of the leading (dim) lights of the religious right are among Trump’s biggest boosters, even after his sexual assault tape came to light. It’s the same crew that would gladly reverse twenty years of our progress. They hate Clinton for all the same reasons why we love her, starting with her willingness to stand up for us.
6. Her stamina
Clinton is the textbook case of an unstoppable survivor. A lesser person would have wilted under all the negative coverage and the vicious (often sexist) attacks she’s endured. There’s no question that resonates with a lot of folks in the community. Even Donald Trump had to acknowledge that “she doesn’t give up and she doesn’t quit.” It may be the only time Trump has been right in this election.
7. Her friends Are Our Friends
Her fans
Ellen
Oprah
Elton John
President Obama
