HRC Endorses President Barack Obama for Reelection

Today we are announcing our endorsement of President Barack Obama for reelection. The decision was made based on the President’s demonstrated commitment to LGBT equality and his record of accomplishment, from major legislative victories to critical administrative reforms. Since taking office, President Obama's Administration's record of accomplishment for the LGBT community includes:

• Pressing for passage and signing legislation to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that bans openly lesbian, gay and bisexual servicemembers.
• Pressing for passage and signing an inclusive hate crimes law – the first federal statute to explicitly protect LGBT individuals.
• Determining that the administration believes Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional and refusing to defend the discriminatory law in court.
• Requiring hospitals nationwide to adopt LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination policies regarding visitation.

In addition, the administration’s policies: added gender identity to the equal employment opportunity policy governing all federal jobs; permitted married same-sex couples to use their marriage licenses as evidence of a name change for passports and instituted more reasonable standards for changing a gender marker on passports; allowed the Census Bureau to release data on married same-sex couples; extended a number of benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees possible under existing authority; launched a National HIV/AIDS Strategy and efforts to target populations most at risk; required abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education programs be inclusive of and non-stigmatizing toward LGBT youth; and recognized LGBT families are protected under a host of laws from the Violence Against Women Act to family and medical leave regulations to housing programs.

HRC President Joe Solmonese had the following to say:

“President Obama has improved the lives of LGBT Americans more than any President in history.  In 2008 we were promised change and profound change is what we got.  More remains to be done and ensuring that President Obama is able to continue the forward momentum toward equality for another term is an absolute priority of the Human Rights Campaign.”

For more information, read HRC's summary of President Obama's LGBT record.

Paid for by the Human Rights Campaign (www.hrc.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.