By Roberto Camacho–
By Robert Camacho–
This is why I am supporting Joe Biden to be our next president.
We are going through a very challenging time. Protecting the constitution under a regime of lawlessness is not a peaceful act, yet it must be done if we believe no one is above the law.
As such, we find our nation fractured and divided without a unifying agent to heal us and bring us together. The only path to victory is building upon the coalitions of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris … and there’s currently only one candidate who is in the position to do that.
Former vice president Joe Biden is the president our country desperately needs right now. I have great respect for his integrity as well as his ability. And I believe experience is really important at this particular point, where our world is today.
Through it all, I’ve seen Joe tested in public service and tested in life itself. I know the measure of a person who never stopped fighting for millions of Americans even as his beloved son was losing a heartbreaking battle with cancer, and I can relate, losing my mother to cancer.
Joe’s strength and his moral center are inspiring. But so are his skills as a leader. He’s the candidate with the wisdom and standing to fix what Trump has broken, to restore our place in the world, and improve the lives of working people here at home.
It’s time for respected leadership on the world stage—and dignified leadership at home. It’s time for equal opportunity, equal rights, and equal justice. It’s time for an economy that rewards those who actually do the work. It’s time for a president who will stand up for all of us. It’s essential to recognize that this division, painful and deep though it may feel, is temporary. It’s only one chapter in a book that we are still writing, and we have many more chapters to go, unscripted.
This is why I support Kamala Harris for vice president.
I have known Kamala going back to 2004 when she first ran for district attorney of San Francisco. I supported Senator Kamala Harris from the day she announced her presidential campaign until she suspended it. I met with Kamala right after she suspended and she said, “I want to be clear with you: I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for the people. All the people.”
I truly believe Joe will fight and keep Kamala’s message alive “for the people” and will support a lot of her policies important to us.
It’s important that we remember the struggle and sacrifices of the activists who spent decades fighting for civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community. Just two presidential elections ago, it would have been hard to imagine a candidate who boldly stood up for the LGBTQ+ community. However, before it became a politically expedient thing to do, Kamala was on the frontlines of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
The daughter of an Indian American mother and an African-American father, she understood from a young age that love is something to be celebrated and that no one should have to apologize for whom they love. It’s why she has consistently shown herself to be a true progressive champion when it comes to fighting for LGBTQ+ rights as San Francisco district attorney, as California’s attorney general, and as a United States senator.
In 2004, as district attorney, she established an LGBT hate crimes unit, which included a Victim Advocacy Unit, as well as a Sexual Assault Awareness Program. At the time, these were some of the first programs to combat hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community in the country.
While progress nationally was lagging, and crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity were not recognized as federal hate crimes, Kamala led the fight to abolish the use of gay and transgender “panic defenses” in criminal trials, which were often used to defend violence against LGBTQ+ people.
Furthermore, when most Democrats supported civil unions, Harris demonstrated her commitment to the LGBTQ+ community by officiating some of the first marriages between same-sex couples.
Kamala didn’t stop fighting for the LGBTQ+ community with her early efforts in San Francisco. As California’s attorney general, she successfully defended a California law banning conversion therapy. Later—when Proposition 8, which only recognized marriages between a man and woman as valid in the State of California, landed on her desk—she refused to defend it, and filed briefs in support of marriage equality. She even pushed the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider its ban on blood donations from gay men.
As a senator, Harris has sponsored landmark legislation such as the Do No Harm Act, which would ensure that religion cannot be used to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals.
She is also a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she has aggressively questioned appointees and nominees put forward by the Trump administration. She asked Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross about his decision to direct the census to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity, and later introduced the Census Equality Act to ensure that members of the LGBTQ+ community don’t go uncounted in the future.
Few, if any, candidates who were in the large 2020 presidential field could match Senator Harris’ deep commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. Time and again, she has demonstrated her strong support of the LGBTQ+ community and her willingness to buck political trends to do the right thing. A Kamala Harris vice presidency gives the LGBTQ+ community a fierce advocate in the White House with an unparalleled commitment to equal rights.
That is why I am supporting Kamala Harris for vice president. She embodies the kind of energy and spirit we need in the White House to ensure that people in the LGBTQ+ community don’t go unseen, unheard, or uncared about here at home or around the world. We should proudly stand behind a candidate who is committed to dignity, acceptance, and equal rights, and who has the skills to make those ideals a reality for everyone.
We can change the trajectory of our history. Believe that our better days are ahead of us.
Robert Camacho is a member of the 2020 Delegation to the Democratic National Convention representing California Congressional District 11 for the Biden for President campaign. He serves on the campaign’s National Finance Committee, LGBTQ and Latino Leadership Councils, and has for many years been an active donor and fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee. He lives in the East Bay with his husband, Tim Miller.
Thursday, August 13
Biden Action Fund Event:
Virtual Affordable Housing Conversation
with Stef Feldman, Biden for President (BFP) Policy Director
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/affordable-housing-conversation?attr=100631801
Friday, August 14
Virtual Conversation with Governor Gavin Newsom
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0814-conversation?attr=100631801
Monday, August 17
Virtual Reception with Joe Biden
& Speaker Nancy Pelosi
with a special performance by Carole King
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0817-reception?attr=100631801
Tuesday, August 18
Virtual Conversation on Screenwriting the White House
with Eli Attie, Writer, The West Wing,
Etan Cohen, Co-Writer, Idiocracy,
& David Mandel, Showrunner, Veep
moderated by Jen Psaki,
former WH communications director
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0818-screenwriting?attr=100631801
Wednesday, August 19
Pennsylvania Virtual Reception
With Joe Biden, Senator Bob Casey,
& Governor Tom Wolf
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/pennsylvania-reception?attr=100631801
Monday, August 24
Arkansas Virtual Reception with Pete Buttigieg
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0824-arkansas?attr=100631801
Monday, August 24
Fireside Chat on the Future of U.S.
Transportation and Infrastructure
with Ben Harris, former chief economist to Joe Biden
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0824-fireside-chat?attr=100631801
Monday, August 24
Virtual Conversation
with Senator Amy Klobuchar & Representative David Cicilline
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0811-conversation?attr=100631801
Monday, August 24
Virtual Conversation on the Rule of Law
with Dana Remus, BFP General Counsel
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0824-conversation?attr=100631801
Tuesday, August 25
Virtual Meeting with Tony Blinken,
BFP Senior Foreign Policy Advisor,
& Mayor Eric Garcetti
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0825-meeting?attr=100631801
Tuesday, August 25
Virtual Conversation on Latin American Policy
with Amb. Mari Carmen Aponte, Amb. Liliana Ayalde,
Amb. Roberta Jacobson, Hon. Maria Otero,
& Amb. Julissa Reynoso
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0825-conversation?attr=100631801
Wednesday, August 26
Virtual Conversation on the Value
of Women Voters and Leaders
with Rep. Abby Finkenauer, Rep. Lucy McBath,
& Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Moderated by Debra Messing & Eric McCormack
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0826-women-voters?attr=100631801
Thursday, August 27
Virtual Conversation with Jill Biden
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/082720-virtual-conversation?attr=100631801
Thursday, August 27
Virtual Conversation with Tony Blinken,
BFP Senior Foreign Policy Advisor,
& Neal Wolin, former deputy secretary of the treasury
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0827-conversation?attr=100631801
Thursday, August 27
Virtual Conversation on the Future of Energy
in the Built Environment
with Bruce Reed, BFP Senior Advisor
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0827-energy?attr=100631801
Thursday, August 27
Virtual Conversation on Organizing on the Ground,
Creating Policy on Capitol Hill, and the
Importance of Leadership in the White House
with Senator Cory Booker,
Filmmaker & Activist Etienne Maurice,
Moderated by Karine Jean-Pierre
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/082720-conversation?attr=100631801
Tuesday, September 1
Virtual Discussion on Rebuilding the Global Order
and Implications for Asia
with former secretary of state Madeleine Albright
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0901-discussion?attr=100631801
During Harris’ presidential campaign in 2019, #Kamalot went viral on social media. It is a play on Harris’ first name and Camelot, a mythological beautiful place in Arthurian legends that was also the name of a musical associated with the John F. Kennedy presidency. Kennedy’s widow Jacqueline paraphrased lyrics from the show in 1963 when she told Life: “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot.”
The shining moment of a Biden/Harris team in the White House feels tantalizingly close. It is up to us now—the volunteers, fundraisers, voters, and more—to help make it happen.
Published on August 13, 2020
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