Despite Presidential Campaign Suspension, Harris Vows to Keep Fighting for ‘Equality and Dignity for All’

Senator Kamala Harris on Tuesday, December 3, announced that she is suspending her presidential campaign, but she used the initial platform, Medium, to double down on her plan to continue “fighting for people whose voices that have not been heard or too often ignored.” She wrote, and later vocally proclaimed, “We will keep up that fight.”

Harris, who has been supportive of “Betty’s List” and the San Francisco Bay Times over the years, walks the talk. She hired out and proud lesbian Rebecca Prozan—now Chief of Public Policy and Government Relations for Google—to manage her campaign for District Attorney, a race that Harris won. The Bay Times hosted a reception for her that year, and her passion for LGBT rights was very evident.

Her record on behalf of our community includes the following:

• As California Attorney General, Harris declined to defend the state’s ban on Proposition 8.
• After the Supreme Court restored marriage equality in our state, Harris officiated at the same-sex wedding ceremony of Prop 8 plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier.
• As Attorney General, she helped to shut down the unconstitutional “Kill the Gays” ballot initiative.
• With Assemblymember Susan Bonilla, she co-sponsored a bill that eliminated the “gay panic” defense in cases concerning violent crime or murder. Only California and Illinois then banned such a plea.
• Harris co-sponsored the Equality Act.
• She signed a friend-of-the-court briefing holding that transgender individuals should be permitted to use bathrooms that are consistent with their gender identity.
• She fought North Carolina’s transphobic House Bill 2.
• She signed a brief before the Supreme Court advocating for transgender student Gavin Grimm.
• Harris appointed Mariana Marroquin, a transgender woman of color, to the California Racial & Identity Profiling Advisory Board.

The list could go on. While she clearly has had detractors over the years, even from our own community, most acknowledge her overall pro-LGBT record.

We expect that her efforts moving forward will continue working toward the following three key goals of her former presidential campaign’s LGBTQ+ Plan to Provide Equality and Dignity for All:

1 – “Roll back the Trump/Pence hate agenda by reversing Trump’s actions to harm the LGBTQ+ community, including the transgender service ban and guidelines to protect students from discrimination and harassment.”

2 – “Establish a Chief Advocate for LGBTQ+ affairs in the White House to ensure that LGBTQ+ Americans are represented in hiring and policy priorities across the government.”

3 – “Fight for full equality for the LGBTQ+ community by passing the Equality Act and other laws to ensure that everyone is safe and supported at work, at school, and throughout their communities.”

Finally, we note that President Trump, upon hearing of Harris’ announcement this week, tweeted: “Too bad. We will miss you Kamala.” She replied, “Don’t worry, Mr. President. I’ll see you at your trial.”

Published on December 5, 2019