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January 20, 2017Jason Howe, Equality California

Los Angeles — In connection with today’s inauguration of Donald Trump, Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur issued the following statement:

“After a campaign that targeted women, immigrants, Muslims, people of color and LGBT people and was more divisive than any in living memory, the LGBT community has reason for great concern today. Since his election, Donald Trump has demonstrated a troubling lack of respect for many of the laws and traditions that are at the heart of our democracy—including freedom of the press and governmental transparency and ethics requirements. President Trump’s attacks on critics, vilification of reporters and his threats to deny press access to the White House signal surprising hostility to institutions that are vital to a free people. In addition, he has appointed to his cabinet a line-up of nominees that reads like a who’s-who of the anti-LGBT right, a cabinet more hostile to LGBT people than any in the past two decades.

As we move into a new period of significant uncertainty about how this administration will function and what it means to LGBT people, Equality California will be on the front lines in Washington D.C. and California to protect the civil rights of our community and the programs that are vital to LGBT people. We will work with all our strength, creativity and dedication to defend the Affordable Care Act, which has brought vital health coverage for the first time to millions in our community who were otherwise ineligible because of HIV status or pre-existing conditions. We will fight any effort to target and deport undocumented Californians including the 250,000 individuals who are members of the LGBT community. We will oppose the nomination of ultraconservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who would threaten marriage equality, voting rights and reproductive rights. We will fight any attempt to target transgender Americans or to cloak old-fashioned anti-LGBT discrimination as ‘religious freedom’.

And we will hold President Trump to his promises that he will not repeal vital health coverage for the American people – including millions of LGBT people – without a better replacement that provides high quality coverage for everyone. We stand ready to hold him to his statement that he considers marriage equality for same-sex couples ‘settled’ and that he respects the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Above all, we will work to ensure that California’s protections for LGBT people remain the world’s strongest and that our state remains a beacon of tolerance and inclusion, whatever lies ahead.”

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