Democratic 2020 Hopeful Michael Bloomberg Unveils LGBTQ Proposals
Democratic 2020 presidential hopeful and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg has announced a platform to restore progress that LGBTQ Americans have lost during three years of the Trump administration, reports NBC News.
Bloomberg's campaign released a statement in which the billionaire latecomer to the race declared, "I have been honored to stand with the LGBTQ+ community in the fight for equality and justice, from New York, where we won marriage equality in 2011, to states across the country.
"That fight — true to our nation's highest ideals — has achieved historic progress, but we still have a long way to go," Bloomberg added.
Bloomberg went on to say:
As president, I will work to protect every member of theLGBTQ+ community from hatred, violence, and discrimination. We will close disparities inhealth care access and quality, stop violence against transgender people, and advocate for equalrights across the world. We cannot settle for anything less - and I won't.
The statement outlined some of the steps that Bloomberg says he will implement to shore up the rights of LGBTQ citizens and regain lost ground.
As president, Mike will reverse the multitude of policy setbacks to LGBTQ+ Americans underthe Trump administration. Over the past three years, the Trump administration has acted to dismantle federal protections and resources for LGBTQ+ Americans, including stripping transgender people of their recognized identities and civil rights and nominating judges and officials with strong anti-LGBTQ+ records.
The statement also said that Bloomberg would, if elected president, sign the Equality Act, federal legislation guaranteeing equal access and protections to non-heterosexual Americans that was first introduced decades ago but that has never come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate.
The Bloomberg campaign trumpeted the slate of promises to the LGBTQ community, with Bloomberg also tweeting about it.
We still have a long way to go in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and justice. As president, I will work to protect every member of the LGBTQ+ community from hatred, violence and discrimination: https://t.co/bift85Mjm2— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) January 28, 2020
Despite only having joined the race recently, Bloomberg has made a splash in the race. Text at his campaign website noted:
Mike grew his nationwide support another 2 percentage points in the latest poll, bringing him to 12%. Over the past month, he has doubled his first-choice support among Democratic pimary voters. As he grows his nationwide vote share, his net favorability has also surged six-fold since November.
Speaking to the press about his support for equality, Bloomberg referenced "his early 2005 endorsement of same-sex marriage, saying he later 'worked to convince Republicans' to vote for the marriage equality bill passed by the New York State Assembly in 2011," NBC News reported.