HRC Opposes Donald Trump's Anti-Equality Pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services

WASHINGTON -- Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, announced its opposition to Tom Price's appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services. In a report and letter sent to Congress this morning, HRC cited his career-long record of opposing basic human rights for LGBTQ people.

Chad Griffin, President of the Human Rights Campaign, responded:

"Donald Trump has chosen a man to run the Department of Health and HumanServices who is on the wrong side of just about every public health concern for LGBTQ people. Today too many LGBTQ people are still turned away from care, denied the right to visit loved ones and treated unfairly by their providers. We deserve a Secretary who will work to end discrimination, not one who has a history of demeaning and marginalizing LGBTQ people. For all of those reasons, and many more, we strongly oppose his appointment..

For more, check out HRC’s report: Tom Price: A History of Anti-LGBTQ Actions, which includes details about his extensive history of anti-LGBTQ lawmaking, including:

  • Price, like Jeff Sessions, voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act, referring to it as "thought crime" and referred to its passage as "immoral."
  • Price was a vocal opponent of repealing the discriminatory “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.” ban
  • He referred to the notion that transgender people should have equal access to public facilities as "abuse and overreach of power"
  • The fringe Family Research Council wrote to its members: “As one of our good friends in Congress, Rep. Tim Price [sic] (R-GA), told me recently: If the homosexual Left succeeds and ENDA becomes law, you can "Just let your mind run wild and see the consequences: They are remarkably negative."
  • Price voted against the Violence Against Women Act, which include protections for LGBTQ people -- particularly concerning given HHS' recognition of domestic violence as a public health crisis.
  • He is a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act, which provides essential healthcare for LGBTQ people
  • Price sponsored legislation to attempt to pre-empt Washington, D.C.'s recognition of marriages between same-sex couples.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality. 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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