AG Candidate Brad Schimel’s Anti-LGBTQ Agenda is Wrong for Wisconsin

by Ianthe Metzger

MILWAUKEE -- Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexaul, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, exposed the anti-LGBTQ record of Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel who is seeking a second term.

“As the Trump administration ramps up its attacks against the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender people, Wisconsinites need an attorney general who will stand up to their discriminatory agenda, not rubber stamp every reckless policy proposal,” said HRC Wisconsin State Director Wendy Strout. “We deserve better than Brad Schimel. From urging the Supreme Court of the United States to grant a potentially sweeping license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, to opposing protections for LGBTQ youth facing discrimination and bullying in our school, to working to block millions of Wisconsities from accessing care through the Affordable Care Act, Schimel has never put his constituents first. That’s why HRC is on the ground working hard to elect candidates like Josh Kaul who will protect our community, our families and our health care, and ensure that Schimel’s first term as AG is his last.”

A former Assistant U.S. Attorney and current litigator specializing in voting rights, Kaul has fought for the equal rights of every American, while his opponent Brad Schimel has repeatedly used the Office of the Attorney General to roll back progress and undermine the rights of LGBTQ people. In 2016, Schimel joined the suit against the Obama administration’s life-saving guidance protecting LGBTQ students from bullying and discrimination at school. Earlier this year, Schimel joined an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court of the United States to grant a potentially sweeping license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, in a decision that would threaten to gut many of our nation’s most sacred civil rights laws -- not just for LGBTQ people, but also for women, people of color, religious minorities, and Americans of all backgrounds. He has also accepted thousands of dollars from the notoriously anti-LGBTQ Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to speak at the group’s recent conference in California.

In Wisconsin, HRC has identified more than 560,000 “Equality Voters” -- voters who support LGBTQ-inclusive policies. HRC has prioritized investments and organizing in Wisconsin in the 2018 cycle, and has staff and resources on the ground in the state as part of the largest grassroots expansion in the organization’s 38-year history.


The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

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Paid for by Human Rights Campaign PAC (www.hrc.org). Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's agent or committee.

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