theFeed million equality voters at risk of not turning out this year who could help determine the outcome of this year’s election. Notably, the addition of Texas — which many political observers believe still leans too Republican to be considered a “swing state” — speaks to HRC’s confidence that it can help expand the electoral battlefield this year. One prominent political observer has said that at least nine Republican-held congressional districts in Texas, eight of which have anti-LGBTQ politicians representing them, should be legitimately competitive this year. “Texans need change, and Vice President Biden will bring it to our state and our country,” HRC Texas State Director Rebecca Marques said in a statement. “For too long, our community has lived in fear: fear of losing our jobs without statewide or national non-discrimination protections, fear for our lives as members of our community are attacked in the streets or fear of the next horribly anti-LGBTQ regulation coming from the Trump-Pence administration. “Trump has demonized immigrants and stripped people of their access to health care. Joe Biden will help us turn the page to a brighter future,” Marquez added. “Together, we can work toward the full equality we deserve — in Texas, and across America.”
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face discrimination, intimidation, and violence simply because of who they are who they love,” David said in a statement. “But rather than have our backs, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have spent the last three-and-a-half years rolling back and rescinding protections for LGBTQ people. Joe Biden will be a president who stands up for all of us.” HRC has previously enjoyed success through its investments in various states to mobilize “equality voters” with the intent of electing pro-LGBTQ lawmakers who can push policies and laws that make LGBTQ people’s lives better. In 2018, the organization placed full-time staff in six battleground states to engage voters and recruited thousands of volunteers to carry out get-out-thevote efforts, successfully electing pro-equality candidates in six of six U.S. Senate races and four of five gubernatorial races where it endorsed a candidate. Ultimately, the organization claims it was able to boost turnout among “equality voters” to 56% in the 2018 midterms, an increase from the 36% rate among the same group of people in the previous midterms, in 2014. As November approaches, HRC is mobilizing staff and volunteers in seven key states: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. The organization estimates that there are 3.4
Jeffress and Trump
Preaching Hate
Anti-LGBTQ Trump ally calls gay marriages “counterfeit,” blames them for decline in marriage rates. By Rhuaridh Marr
R
OBERT JEFFRESS, A PASTOR AND MEMBER OF Donald Trump’s “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition, has described same-sex marriages as “counterfeit” and blamed them for a decline in the number of couples choosing to marry. Jeffress made the comments to OneNewsNow, the news division of anti-LGBTQ hate group the American Family Association, in an article headlined: “Marriages on decline? You can thank Joe marrying Joey” After the National Center for Health Statistics reported that marriage rates had dropped to an all-time low — 6.5 marriages
per 1,000 people in 2018 — Jeffress claimed that the decline was due to the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling which legalized samesex marriage nationwide. “Whenever you counterfeit something, you cheapen the value of the real thing,” Jeffress said. “And if you expand marriage to, basically, any definition you want — two men, two women, three men and a woman — I mean, if marriage is what you want it to be, why bother to get married at all?” However, Jeffress did say that the “ship has sailed” on reverting to heterosexual-only marriage, saying that the moral high MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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