LGBTQ activists warn they will feel slighted if President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump ignore them during Thursday night’s debate.
“This will be an enormous slight to our community if LGBTQ questions are not asked during this debate,” lamented Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the advocacy organization GLAAD. “Our community is deeply affected by where these candidates stand.”
Ellis used a letter to CNN moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper to plead to be noticed and ensure they ask the 2024 presidential aspirants about their past statements and policies.
The presidential contenders’ respective plans to “advance the rights” of LGBTQ people if they are elected in November should also reportedly be part of the dialogue to ensure the sensibilities of the LGBTQ community are not ignored.
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“The safety and freedom of LGBTQ people depends on your engagement with the candidates and ability to inform voters about their records and proposals,” Ellis wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained and first reported on by The Hill.
The outlet noted Ellis said she’d like to see both Trump and Biden asked Thursday “about marriage equality, rising anti-LGBTQ hate and extremism, gender-affirming health care and the Equality Act — federal legislation that would make sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes.”
“We are poised to be the decisive voting bloc in the 2024 election, which is what we were in the 2020 election,” Ellis said in the missive. “So, we have to be a part of this conversation.”
“I certainly hope that the moderators bring up the LGBTQ community and LGBTQ issues, because there is a stark contrast between the two candidates,” added Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which pushed for more LGBTQ people to public office.
The debate, hosted by CNN in Atlanta, is the first to take place during LGBTQ Pride month, which is recognized each year in June.
Most U.S. adults plan to watch or listen to some segment of the head-to-head as they consider it an essential element of both combatants 2024 race for the White House, as Breitbart News reported.
A second debate is scheduled for Sep. 10, hosted by ABC.
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