Dear friends,

This week, we’re bringing you a special message in honor of Latine Heritage Month, but, first, I want to congratulate Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) once again. I had the privilege of witnessing her historic swearing in on Tuesday to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Sen. Butler’s selection by Governor Gavin Newsom makes her the first Black lesbian to openly serve in Congress and the first open member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community to represent California in the United States Senate. She is also just the third Black woman to have ever served in that body.

This is a landmark moment in the fight for social, racial and economic justice. Sen. Butler brings a compelling voice for abortion rights, the labor movement and civil rights to Congress. As I’ve said before, Sen. Butler is not new to this — she’s true to this. Her leadership also is a testament to the legacy of Sen. Feinstein’s strong record of pro-LGBTQ+ support.

The threats to reproductive freedoms and LGBTQ+ people emanating from the Supreme Court and anti-equality politicians are twin crises that require immediate attention, and Sen. Butler is an exceptional advocate on both of these issues in particular. We thank Gov. Newsom for making an excellent choice.

Finally, looking ahead, next week is what I like to call the HRC Super Bowl: Equality Week is here! I’m grateful for the chance to come together in unity and strengthen our resolve for the fights ahead.

–

Celebrating Latine Heritage Month ¡Viva la lucha!

Hello friends,

It’s super confusing that Latine Heritage Month starts halfway through September, but it’s because so many of our families’ home countries won their independence from Spain in the second half of September. Our mid-month to mid-month celebration is a reflection of us — grounded in diversity and revolution.

If there’s anything that’s been clear in the past years of attacks on equality, it’s that liberation has to be intersectional. Hurting LGBTQ+ communities hurts Black and Brown people. Hurting Black and Brown communities hurts LGBTQ+ people. And the harm is not limited to only queer people of color but rather extends to everyone. Our only way through is together. But despite Latines’ incredible presence in queer spaces and history, we find a dearth of representation in leadership and media.

I am proud to say that HRC is continuing to work towards prioritizing LGBTQ+ Latine voices with the amazing work being done in our Equidad program, the Trans Justice Initiative, and the My Body, My Health program. HRC has also launched HRSí, a working group composed of HRC volunteers, community leaders and staff, including myself. Our group focuses on building LGBTQ+ Latine community spaces, making HRC’s vast work more accessible to Latine folks, building an LGBTQ+ movement led by Latine people that authentically highlights the diversity of the Latine experience and amplifying the strong voices of LGBTQ+ Latine leadership.

To that end, last week HRSí hosted a virtual national event featuring HRC President Kelley Robinson; Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the first LGBTQ+ immigrant in Congress; Rep. Lorena Austin, the first Chicanx gender-nonconforming state legislator in the country; and Carlhey Bolz, HRC’s Deputy Director of the Equidad program. After hearing from speakers, guests broke into rooms by topic and were given an opportunity to just talk with each other about LGBTQ+ Latine issues. Something powerful happens when we are able to be in community.

If you are interested in keeping up with or being involved in this work, please join our mailing list or email hrsi@hrc.org

We are strong, together.

¡Juntos!

Marina Hernandez

Dear friends,

Like millions around the world, we are outraged and profoundly devastated by what’s happening in the Middle East. Our hearts ache for those who have lost loved ones.

There is no justification for what happened. Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians in a terrorist attack over the weekend. And the news stories of the kidnapping of Israeli children are truly horrifying. Now, countless more Israeli and Palestinian people are dying as the violence escalates. It’s clear that both Jewish and Palestinian people across the region are scared and unsafe. It’s terrifying. Here in the U.S., I've seen so many Jewish, Arab and Muslim people express concern that bias-motivated harassment and violence will increase.

As we gather in community this week, let’s recognize that many members of our community feel very broken right now. The world is heavy and frightening. And the future is uncertain. This violence is a reminder that the struggle for liberation against extremism, discrimination and hate is a global struggle. It’s my struggle. It’s your struggle. It’s our struggle. We need to stand together, so we can all be free.

This week at the Human Rights Campaign, not only did we celebrate National Coming Out Day on Wednesday; we also have our inaugural Equality Convention which platforms the power of our movement tonight and our annual National Dinner, featuring President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, tomorrow. This week, too, Human Rights Campaign PAC proudly announced its endorsement of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for re-election in 2024.

Check out our recent videos highlighting some of our work and events that are advancing equality — and please share them on your social networks.

• From the Human Rights Campaign PAC on re-electing President Biden and Vice President Harris.

• And from the Equality Votes PAC on why we need to re-elect President Biden and Vice President Harris.

• From the Human Rights Campaign on “National Coming Out Day: Pledge to Come Out Against Hate!”

• And from the Human Rights Campaign on Keith Haring and National Coming Out Day

And mark your calendars for HRC’s Chefs for Equality event — Monday evening, October 30, at the National Building Museum. You can get your tickets here.

And a special shout-out to the speakers at tonight’s Equality Convention: Andrea Jenkins, Minneapolis city council president; Sarah McBride, state senator (D-DE); Zooey Zephyr, state representative (D-MT) and more — and to the HRC board members, staff, volunteers and partners who are making our very busy week a resounding success.

Dear friends,

It’s been nearly two weeks since terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel killed more Jewish people than any event since the Holocaust and wounded many more. This past week has been shocking and awful, with hundreds more Palestinian and Israeli civilian deaths, and the news channels sharing gut-wrenching images and stories nearly non-stop. I can’t begin to fully grasp what this moment of crisis must feel like for those who are Jewish. I can’t fully understand what it must feel like to be an Israeli or Palestinian civilian right now.

As a Black queer woman, I do, however, understand the anguish of being part of a community that is repeatedly targeted. I do understand the fear and concerns of safety — it’s a pain that weighs heavily on my heart. This violence is a reminder that the struggle for liberation against extremism, discrimination and hate is a global struggle.

Last weekend, a 6-year-old boy in Chicago was brutally murdered by his landlord, who was motivated by anti-Palestinian bias. In the United States, there is reason to fear a continued rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia that could harm countless more. It’s a struggle the LGBTQ+ community knows all too well, especially trans people. We have lost 20 trans people, who we know of, this year already.

As we were preparing for our National Dinner, we learned of the tragic death of Chyna Long, a Black trans woman who was found shot on a street in Milwaukee last week. We hold Chyna’s life and the lives of her loved ones in our heart and recommit ourselves to building a world where LGBTQ+ people can live freely without the threat of violence. That mission is at the core of the Human Rights Campaign.

Last week, we gathered together for our annual National Dinner with more than 2,500 LGBTQ+ advocates, activists and close friends. The room was absolutely electric as keynote speakers President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden took the stage. The momentum continued as we honored individuals who have gone above and beyond in their commitment to equality, including award-winning television writer and producer Shonda Rhimes; Emmy-winning actor, writer and producer Lena Waithe; Golden Globe-winning television and film actor Matt Bomer; and the quartet of extraordinary young people who founded the first Trans Prom on the National Mall, Grayson McFerrin, Libby Gonzales, Hobbes Chukumba, and Daniel Trujillo. Check out their remarks and mine.

We are facing troubling times, but we have been called to this moment to fight for a future where we all belong. I’m committed to this work now more than ever, and I’m honored to fight alongside each of you every single day.

Last Friday evening, we also hosted the first-ever Equality Convention at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium as part of our Equality Weekend. The convention platformed the power of the LGBTQ+ movement by bringing together influential politicians and cultural voices — including Delaware state senator Sarah McBride, Montana state representative Zooey Zephyr, Minneapolis city council president Andrea Jenkins, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights president Maya Wiley, Moms Demand Action executive director Angela Ferrell-Zabala and Reproductive Freedom for All president Mini Timmaraju.

The conversation between speakers focused on the national state of emergency facing LGBTQ+ people amid a record-breaking year of anti-equality state legislation, the intersectionality of the fights for freedom and justice and the strength of the equality movement in the United States.

The extremists who are attacking our community are scared, because we know how to respond in an emergency — we know how to turn crisis into opportunity. It is our inheritance. In this next chapter of our fight, we can’t settle for policies that simply add queer folks into the systems that exist. We need to disrupt the systems that don’t work for us, and design ones that do. In this next chapter, we are fighting for freedom without exception. We are fighting for liberation without exception. We are fighting for joy without exception. That is the work of our democracy.

Dear friends,

What a week, y’all! This week we experienced both the election of an extreme, right-wing, anti-equality Congressman to be Speaker of the House of Representatives and the tragic mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. As challenging as it all was, I’m so proud of the HRC team, who sprang into action to make our voices heard.

On Wednesday, the MAGA majority in the U.S. House of Representatives elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) — one of the most anti-equality members of Congress and one of our worst enemies — to be Speaker of the House and SECOND in line to the presidency.

Johnson is a well-documented election-denying, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-choice extremist, who has earned nothing but zeroes on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard. His attacks on LGBTQ+ rights alone are disturbing. He opposes marriage equality and has been a vocal opponent of the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges case. He authored the national “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” bill in 2022 which would have banned discussions about anything remotely related to gender identity and sexuality in schools, nationalizing the kind of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed forward in Florida. And he voted against the Equality Act.

Johnson also worked for more than a decade as an attorney and spokesperson for the hate group, Alliance Defending Freedom, where he argued that “the homosexual lifestyle… is morally wrong and physically dangerous.” And he co-sponsored a bill with Marjorie Taylor Greene to block lifesaving healthcare for transgender youth that punishes healthcare providers with jail time.

Beyond these extremist actions, Johnson is also an insurrectionist who backed a 2020 attempt to throw out election results and overturn the will of the voters. On top of that, he's vehemently anti-abortion, having fought to shut down a Baton Rouge abortion provider and leading numerous anti-abortion efforts in the House.

Johnson’s position as Speaker of the House is extremely dangerous for the LGBTQ+ community, which has already faced a record number of anti-equality bills this year. If there was ever a time to fight back, it’s now. We cannot be silent. Please donate now to help HRC fight back against Johnson and the extremist Republican conference that elected him.

We are still in a state of emergency, and having someone who has a track record of unbridled hate so high in power is devastating not only for the LGBTQ+ community but also for democracy, abortion rights, voting rights — and gun safety.

In fact, Johnson earned a 92 percent rating from the National Rifle Association and has voted to expand gun access in Congress and against bipartisan safety measures. This week, in response to the horrific shooting in Lewiston, Maine — that has stolen at least 18 lives and injured at least 13 more — Johnson said the problem was not guns, it was “the human heart.” The tragedy in Maine was the largest mass shooting, and the 34th mass killing with a gun, in the United States this year.

We cannot continue to live like this — we must fight back for safety and sanity on this issue. The Human Rights Campaign stands firmly in support of the assault weapons ban and policies to end gun violence that are advised by our partners leading the gun safety movement. We grieve with the people of Maine and will work alongside our partners in the gun safety movement to honor with action those stolen this week.

While conflicts and violence persist in the Middle East and around the world, and attacks on the LGBTQ+ community continue here at home and abroad, I urge you to be kind to yourselves and each other. Find a moment to step back, even if it’s just for a breath. And remember that in times of crisis, we have each other as a community.

I know that this news — out of Washington, D.C., and Lewiston, Maine — is not what we expected this week: it’s certainly tragic, enraging and unwelcome, to say the least. But HRC will not back down in the face of adversity either. Together, with you by our side, we will continue to defend and expand our rights and build a safer, more inclusive future.