Hana A Khalyleh

The Republic | azcentral.com

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT-advocacy group in the U.S., sent leaders to Phoenix last week to rally support for Hillary Clinton and other candidates who would back LGBT-equality measures.

Group President Chad Griffin spoke and more than 20 volunteers worked a phone bank at the Arizona Democratic Party headquarters in Phoenix, part of an effort to mobilize Arizonans to vote for Clinton and pro-equality candidates running for state legislative seats.

Alec Thomson, the group's western regional field organizer, said the phone bank was one part of the Human Rights Campaign's plans over the next six weeks to promote equality issues through weekly canvasses, phone banks and other volunteer-led efforts.

“This election is about ensuring we protect the progress towards full equality for LGBTQ Americans and continuing that work,” Thomson said. “We can do that by electing Hillary Clinton president, the most pro-equality candidate in U.S. history.”

MORE:Trump plans 6th campaign visit to Phoenix area

The group has taken a firm stance against Republican Donald Trump’s campaign, saying it poses a threat to the progress made in recent years for the LGBT community. Griffin called this “the most important presidential election of our lives.”

The voting power of the LGBT community

Some recent polls indicate Clinton and Trump are in a tight race in Arizona, with Trump holding enough of an edge, Thomson said, that Human Rights Campaign leaders believe the election could be swayed by LGBT voters.

“The reality is, the pro-equality electorate is strong enough to make a difference in Arizona,” Thomson said, adding that there are more than 200,000 eligible LGBT voters in Arizona, which was the margin of victory of the popular vote in Arizona in the 2012 presidential election.

Confusion, anger over fake 'LGBT Phoenix' Trump endorsement

According to a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research exit poll, in the 2012 election, lesbian, gay, and bisexual voters made up about 5 percent of the electorate, with 77 percent of them voting for President Barack Obama. Voters were not asked about transgender status in that poll.

In the last presidential election, an estimated 6 million lesbian, gay and bisexual voters turned out to the polls when Obama won by only 5 million votes, Griffin said.

“Our focus really is on turnout,” Griffin said. “If Latinos, women and LGBT people vote, Hillary wins. It’s as simple as that… . No one wants to see a headline that Trump became president just because a few people didn’t vote.”

Federal marriage laws, other pro-LGBT measures, under fire

Even though the Supreme Court struck down laws last year that restricted marriage, the issue of equality for the LGBT community is still under fire and the issue deserves a spotlight this election cycle, Griffin said, adding that opponents to gay marriage have not backed down, and are instead regrouping and raising funds.

“Anti-LGBT groups have raised more money than they ever have before.” Griffin said. “Now they’ve rolled to the states to try to get state legislation passed.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, there have been more than 204 anti-LGBT bills proposed across 34 states in the past two years, a number Griffin said would be higher if the Texas Legislature was in session.

Among the measures was North Carolina’s controversial Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, or House Bill 2, which said transgender people may only use restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates, a law that was heavily criticized across the country.

“North Carolina really was the flashpoint of the country,” Griffin said.

Trump has publicly sided with the passing of HB 2, saying that he’s “with the state on things like this.”

It’s not the only time Trump has spoken out in favor of leaving LGBT-focused legislation up to the states. While speaking as a guest on the Christian Broadcasting Network in February, he called the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling “shocking,” saying, “I was very much in favor of having the court rule that it goes to states, and let the states decide.”

Griffin said shifting decisions on LGBT-equality measures should not be a state’s issue. “At the end of the day, one’s fundamental rights and protections should not be determined by which side of a state’s border you live on,” Griffin said.

Where the candidates stand

Thomson said a Trump presidency poses a threat to progress for the LGBT community and "could threaten our right to marry the person we love or even roll back executive orders that protect transgender members of the military, and so much more.”

Jay Brown, the Human Rights Campaign's communications director and an openly transgender man, saw similar threats for the transgender community, citing Trump’s stance on HB 2, as well as his plans to repeal Obama’s executive orders, which include non-discrimination measures for federal employees, on his first day in office.

LGBT magazine The Advocate endorses Clinton

“Conversely, Hillary Clinton has been a true leader on LGBTQ equality,” Brown said, noting her track record in the Senate to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” and pass the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. “She's committed to making the Equality Act one of her highest priorities and spoken out against the epidemic of violence facing transgender women of color.”

Griffin also said Trump’s choice for vice president, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, is indicative of what could be in store for the LGBT community under a Trump presidency, calling Pence “the face of bigotry and hate in America when it comes to LGBT rights.”

Pence has advocated for the diversion of funds from efforts to treat people diagnosed with HIV, instead opting to use them toward so-called conversion therapy institutions, saying on his campaign website in 2000 that “resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.” He also said during his 2000 campaign that Congress should “oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage” and should block any “anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.”

Trump: I'm better for LGBT people than Clinton

Trump has spoken about protecting the LGBT community, but not from anti-LGBT legislation. During the Republican National Convention, he said that as president, he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology,” referring to the deadly Orlando shooting at a gay club months before, as well as his efforts to ban Muslims from immigrating into the country. Griffin said the comments were not in the LGBT community’s best interest.

“I was appalled — and we’re not too often shocked by the hate and bigotry that he uses anymore,” Griffin said, calling the comments Islamophobic.“We are Muslims. We are immigrants. We are women, or black, or disabled people. When Trump says these things, he is attacking the LGBT community.”

READERS: Participate in our survey to improve azcentral’s comments