Thanks
to the hard work of generations of LGBT advocates and activists who
fought to make it possible, our country won a landmark victory this past
June when the Supreme Court recognized that in America, under our
Constitution, LGBT couples, like everyone else, have the right to marry
the person they love. The Obergefell decision was a watershed
moment and we must fight to protect the progress we have won in our
courts. But our work to reach the promise of full equality remains
unfinished. LGBT kids continue to be discriminated against and bullied
at school, a restaurant can refuse to serve a transgender person, and a
same-sex couple is at risk of being evicted from their home. Hillary
Clinton believes that we must stand firm and keep fighting until every
American can not only marry, but also live, work, pray, learn and raise a
family free from discrimination and prejudice. She believes that
America is at its best when we are inclusive, open, and striving towards
true equality.
As President, Clinton will:
Fight for full federal equality for LGBT Americans.
Today in America nearly 65 percent of LGBT individuals report
experiencing discrimination in their daily lives and nearly 50 percent
report that this discrimination occurs in the workplace. LGBT youth are
nearly twice as likely as their peers to be physically assaulted at
school and 74 percent of LGBT students say they’ve been verbally
harassed for their sexual orientation. Despite this discrimination, 31
states do not have fully inclusive LGBT non-discrimination laws. Clinton
will:
Work with Congress to pass the Equality Act.
The Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related
statutes to add gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of
protected classes such as race, sex, national origin, and religion. The
Act would provide LGBT individuals explicit and comprehensive protection
from discrimination in all facets of American life—employment, housing,
schools, access to credit, public education, jury service, and public
accommodations. Clinton will fight for the passage of the Equality Act
to secure full federal equality for LGBT Americans.
Continue President Obama’s LGBT equality executive actions.
President Obama has taken critical steps to protect LGBT people in
employment, housing, and health care. For example, the Administration
issued nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people employed by the
federal government and federal contractors; published formal regulations
prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and
gender identity in federally funded housing programs; and published a
Health and Human Services regulation for hospitals participating in
Medicaid and Medicare requiring respect for advanced directives and
visitation requests regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Clinton will fully implement and enforce the President’s LGBT equality
executive actions.
Support efforts underway in the
courts and federal government to clarify that under federal statutes
“sex discrimination” includes discrimination on the basis of “gender
identity” and “sexual orientation.” Courts across the country
have concluded that “sex” discrimination encompasses discrimination on
the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, and federal agencies
are following their lead. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
has held that discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual
orientation constitutes sex discrimination under Title VII; the
Department of Housing and Urban Development has concluded that the Fair
Housing Act covers claims based on gender identity and sexual
orientation; and the Department of Education has clarified that under
Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination based on gender
identity or sexual orientation is discrimination based on sex; and HHS
is finalizing a proposed regulation implementing Section 1557 of the
ACA, the act’s nondiscrimination protections, to recognize that sex
discrimination includes gender identity and sex stereotyping. Clinton
will support efforts to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender
identity and sexual orientation as discrimination on the basis of sex to
help secure additional protections in important aspects of life until
Congress acts to provide full federal nondiscrimination protections.
Support LGBT youth, parents, and elders.
LGBT youth face unique challenges at school and at home, LGBT parents
face discriminatory barriers when attempting to start a family, and LGBT
elders carry the consequences of a lifetime of discrimination into
retirement. Clinton has fought for children and families throughout her
career, and will:
End discriminatory treatment of LGBT families in adoptions.
An estimated 108,000 children in foster care are waiting to become part
of loving families. But some states create roadblocks to prevent LGBT
people from adopting or fostering children—requiring more burdensome or
costly procedures or even refusing to place youth with same-sex parents
altogether. Such practices not only prevent LGBT Americans from becoming
parents, they also deny children the chance to live in a safe, happy,
and healthy home. Adoption by same-sex couples remains illegal in
Mississippi, and even in states where adoption is technically legal,
LGBT individuals still face discrimination. Clinton will work with
Congress to pass the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would
prohibit federally funded child welfare agencies from discriminating
against potential foster or adoptive families on the basis of sexual
orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
Improve school climate for all students.
We have told LGBT youth that it gets better, but as a nation, we have
to do more to honor that promise. More than half of LGBT students say
they’ve experienced discrimination at school due to their perceived or
actual sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBT youth are more than
twice as likely as other students to be verbally harassed at school.
Studies show that bullying and harassment contributes to higher rates of
absenteeism, dropouts, adverse health consequences, and academic
underachievement among LGBT youth. Clinton will fight to pass the Safe
Schools Improvement Act to specifically prohibit bullying and harassment
on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual
orientation, gender identity, and religion in federally funded school
districts, and the Student Non-Discrimination Act to prohibit public
schools from discriminating against students on the basis of gender
identity or sexual orientation.
End LGBT conversion therapy for minors. Studies
have reaffirmed that conversion and reparative “therapies” focused on
sexual orientation and gender identity are ineffective and deeply
harmful to LGBT and gender-questioning youth. According to the American
Psychiatric Association, “The potential risks of reparative therapy are
great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior.”
Clinton believes that we should support our LGBT youth and provide
competent care to those struggling with their identity. She will support
efforts in Congress and in the states to end conversion therapy for
minors.
Combat youth homelessness. LGBT youth
are vastly overrepresented in the homeless population: up to 45 percent
of homeless youth identify as LGBT, even though LGBT youth comprise just
5 to 7 percent of the overall youth population. In 2015, Congress
failed to reauthorize the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking
Prevention Act, which provided federal funding for homeless prevention
resources, emergency shelters, street outreach, transitional living, and
rural assistance. Clinton will work with Congress to ensure adequate
funding and safe and welcoming shelter for homeless youth.
Ensure LGBT elders can retire with dignity and respect.
Many LGBT elders enter retirement with the emotional and economic
effects of having lived through a lifetime of discrimination, and the
number of LGBT older adults in the U.S. is expected to double to at
least 3 million by 2050. Clinton believes LGBT elders must be protected
against discrimination and, as President, she will work to ensure they
receive the support they need and deserve.
Collect national data to better serve LGBT individuals and families.
Understanding the size of the LGBT population is critical to creating
informed policies and tracking the prevalence of health and economic
disparities facing the community. But no major federally supported
population survey routinely asks respondents to share both their sexual
orientation and gender identity. Clinton will work to improve data
collection on critical issues such as LGBT unemployment, health
coverage, violence, and poverty by adding sexual orientation and gender
identity questions to federally supported surveys such as the American
Community Survey and the Current Population Survey.
Honor the military service of LGBT people.
Every day, LGBT service members valiantly fight for our country around
the world. Clinton believes we should honor their service and ensure
they receive the benefits they have earned. As Commander-in-Chief,
Clinton will:
Upgrade service records of LGBT veterans dismissed due to their sexual orientation.
Tens of thousands of men and women were forced out of the military
before and during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Many were given less than
honorable discharges simply because of their sexual orientation. Clinton
will direct the Department of Defense to review and correct the records
of these discharged service members to make sure they receive the
honorable discharge they deserve.
Support efforts to allow transgender personnel to serve openly. According
to recent studies, there are an estimated 15,500 actively serving
transgender members of the U.S. military, making the Department of
Defense the largest employer of transgender people in America. In July
2015, Defense Secretary Carter created a working group in the Department
of Defense to study the policy and readiness implications of welcoming
transgender personnel to serve openly. Clinton believes the U.S. should
join the many other countries that allow transgender individuals to
serve openly alongside their comrades in arms.
Secure affordable treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS.
While the United States has made great progress in the treatment and
prevention of HIV and AIDS, our job is not done. As Secretary of State,
Clinton began an ambitious campaign to usher in an AIDS-free generation,
and as President, she will continue to drive towards that goal. Clinton
will:
Call on Republican governors to extend Medicaid coverage to provide life-saving health care to people living with HIV. Before
the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), an individual was
eligible for Medicaid only if he or she was low-income and determined to
be of “categorical need”. Many childless low-income adults with HIV
failed to qualify as categorically needy because asymptomatic HIV did
not render a person “disabled” for purposes of Medicaid. This created a
pernicious catch-22: HIV-positive individuals needed access to care
before their health deteriorated but were not deemed Medicaid-eligible
until their disease progressed to full blown AIDS. As Senator, Clinton
co-sponsored the Early Treatment for HIV Act to fix this loophole. With
the passage of the ACA, however, Medicaid was reformed to no longer tie
eligibility to a finding of “categorical need”; income status alone now
triggers eligibility. An analysis of the ACA’s impact on persons living
with HIV estimated that of 70,000 persons with HIV who were uninsured
before the law, roughly 47,000 would be newly eligible for Medicaid.
However, with the Supreme Court’s ACA decision, these new eligibility
criteria only apply in states that accept Medicaid expansion. As a
result, childless low-income Americans in non-expansion states remain
ineligible for Medicaid if they contract asymptomatic HIV. Clinton
believes that every state should extend Medicaid coverage to provide
life-saving health care to people living with HIV.
Cap out-of pocket expenses for people with HIV/AIDS.
It is an abomination that a pharmaceutical company can raise the price
of life-saving medicine for HIV and AIDS patients by more than 5,000
percent. Clinton has announced a plan to hold the pharmaceutical
industry accountable and to achieve lower drug costs for Americans,
including for medications that help treat HIV and reduce the risk of
contracting AIDS. Clinton will ensure that Americans can get the care
their doctors prescribe by requiring health insurance plans to cap
covered out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $250. She also will
allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and will stop
direct-to-consumer advertising subsidies for drug companies—reinvesting
those funds in research.
Expand the utilization of HIV prevention medications, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
While we work to diagnose and treat all Americans with HIV and AIDS, we
also must work to prevent exposure. Decades of research are beginning
to offer a promising path to prevention. In 2010, a major two year study
showed that PrEP was effective at preventing HIV infection 90 percent
of the time when used as directed. As a result, both the CDC and the
World Health Organization have recommended widespread use of PrEP among
certain at-risk groups. In March, the CDC announced $125 million over
three years in grants to state and local health departments to increase
knowledge about and uptake of PrEP among transgender individuals and
black men who have sex with men (MSM). Clinton will increase the CDC
investment to ensure populations at greatest risk of infection have
access to the drug, and encourage states to follow suit.
Protect transgender rights.
We must do more to end discrimination against the transgender
community. Transgender people are twice as likely than the average
American to be unemployed, and in a recent national survey, 75 percent
of respondents said they had hidden their gender or gender transition to
avoid discrimination. For a majority of transgender individuals, the
simple act of filling out a government form can lead to harassment or
questioning. Clinton believes no individual should be held back from
fully participating in our society because of their gender identity. At
the State Department, Clinton made it possible for transgender Americans
to have their true gender reflected on their passports for the very
first time. As President, she will:
Protect transgender individuals from violence. There
is a tragic epidemic of violence against the transgender community.
This year alone marks the highest recorded number of transgender
homicide victims—nearly all of them women of color. Transgender
individuals are also 10 times more likely than the general prison and
jail populations to be sexually assaulted. Everyone in prison, jail or
detention deserves to be safe from assault. To better understand—and
end—the incidence of violence, Clinton will direct the U.S. Department
of Justice to require that gender identity and sexual orientation data
be collected whenever demographic data is collected with respect to
programs for victims of crime, and to encourage jurisdictions to improve
reporting of hate crimes data based on a victim’s actual or perceived
gender identity or sexual orientation.
Streamline identity documents. Without
accurate identity documents, transgender people face obstacles
accessing employment, health care, education, housing, and voting. Some
states require evidence of a medical transition (which not everyone
chooses to pursue) to change one’s gender on official documents. As
Secretary of State, Clinton worked to remove such barriers for
transgender individuals seeking to change their gender marker on their
passport. As President, Clinton will build on the work of the Obama
Administration to ensure the federal government models best practices in
allowing transgender individuals to change their gender marker on
identification documents, and she will call on states to do the same.
Invest in law enforcement training on interactions with LGBT individuals.
Clinton will invest in law enforcement training that focuses on issues
such as implicit bias, use of force, and de-escalation, as well as fair
and impartial policing including in their interactions with the LGBT
community, in particular transgender individuals. It will also focus on
educating police officers on correctly identifying bias-motivated
crimes.
Promote human rights of LGBT people around the world.
In 2011, Secretary Clinton stood before the United Nations Human Rights
Council and told the world’s leaders, “Gay rights are human rights” –
spearheading the effort to pass the first-ever UN resolution to protect
the LGBT community abroad. Clinton will continue her work to promote
LGBT human rights and ensure America’s foreign policy is inclusive of
LGBT people around the world. As President, she will:
Increase support for the Global Equality Fund.
As Secretary of State, Clinton launched the Global Equality Fund to
support programs that advance the human rights of LGBT persons abroad.
Hundreds of millions of people live in places where they can be
arrested, even executed for their sexuality or gender identity. As
President, Clinton will increase our investment in the Global Equality
Fund by $50 million over the next decade to advance the human rights of
LGBT people around the world.
