Kamala Harris blitzed New York City in show of support for LGBTQ+ rights

Vice President Kamala Harris swung through New York City yesterday to attend a DNC fundraiser and stopped at the iconic Stonewall Inn to greet and encourage patrons on the day after Pride.

When the bar’s owner admitted he was exhausted after Pride weekend, Harris laughed and said, “I get it.” It was “the morning after.” She kept her visit short, offering encouragement to the crowd after a year of constant attacks on the LGBTQ+ community by Republican politicians.

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People shouted “Lord have mercy” and “bulls**t” as the mayor declared the town’s opposition to “hate, abuse, discrimination.”

“We are all in this together. We are fighting for the ideals of our country,” she said. “We believe in its promise of equality and freedom and we fight with pride, understanding what’s at stake. I mean, I am looking at where we are in our country — but we are also clear-eyed about this moment.”

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At a fundraising event later that evening, Harris continued her theme. She pilloried the GOP’s efforts to ban books with LGBTQ+ characters, persecute transgender people, and roll back civil rights protections.

“I will repeat what I’ve said for decades,” the vice president told the crowd. “Pride is patriotism. Pride is patriotism, because there is nothing more patriotic than celebrating freedom, including the freedom to love who you love and be who you are.”

After listing some of the outrageous and harmful legislation that Republicans have pushed through state legislatures this year, Harris noted what the dangers really are.

“Friends,” she said, “as we are clear about this moment, let us all see, also, the larger context in which this is happening. Because this fight is not only about teachers in Florida or young people in Tennessee. This fight is about all of us. Because when you attack the rights of any American, you attack the rights of all Americans.”

“We can take nothing for granted in terms of the progress we achieve,” she told the crowd at the bar in a preview of her later theme at the fundraiser. “We have to be vigilant. That is the nature of our fight for equality.”