9 Big Takeaways From The LGBTQ+ Presidential Candidate Forum

On Thursday (October 10), nine Democratic presidential candidates participated in an evening of consecutive town hall-style interviews on LGBTQ+ issues, taking questions from CNN anchors and audience members alike.


The town hall came mere days right following the Supreme Court heard three landmark equality cases that will determine if LGBTQ+ people can be fired from their jobs simply because of their sexual and/or gender identity, and the day before National Coming Out Day.


Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey took the stage first, and was followed by former Vice President Joe Biden; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; California Sen. Kamala Harris; former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro; and businessman Tom Steyer. Notably, three candidates who qualified for the third debate did not participate: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.


The evening was full of cringe-inducing moments, dunks, and protests. One of the big stumbles came at the hands not of a candidate, yet a moderator. As soon as Harris mentioned her pronouns were she, her and hers, CNN’s Chris Cuomo replied, “Mine, too.” Except those are not him pronouns, and people understandably bristled at someone seemingly making light of pronoun affirmation any time so several folks are fighting for the correct to use theirs. Cuomo, a cisgender man, later apologized on twitter.


Nevertheless most of the four-hour evening was spent on highlighting each candidates’ own LGBTQ+ policies. There were some key topics left out: Sex work came up in discussion only once, which several people saw as a gross oversight for numerous reasons, including the fact that nearly 9 in 10 trans people engaging or suspected of engaging in sex work “reported being harassed, attacked, sexually assaulted or mistreated in some way by police, according to the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey” the HRC reported. Bisexual issues were also largely missing from the event, despite bi people making up about half of the LGBTQ+ community, according to the Williams Institute and the HRC Foundation. Ahead, learn about some of the key moments from every one of the candidate’s 25 minutes onstage.


Senator Cory Booker 


The New Jersey Senator mentioned that if elected president, he would suggest and “Office on Hate Crimes and White Supremacy” and noted that violence against the LGBTQ+ community is a “national emergency.” (For the record, hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people have been on rise within the past three years, according to FBI data.) He also praised California Gov. Gavin Newsom for signing a law that makes narcotics used in HIV prevention obtainable without a prescription, according to the Advocate.


Former Vice President Joe Biden


The former Vice President’s night was… a mixed bag. He discussed about the need to end discrimination and homophobia and reminded the audience that he mentioned he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage in 2012 — before then-President Barack Obama. However he had a hard time explaining his history of voting for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — according to Reuters, he mentioned he only voted for it because it was piece of a larger military spending bill, although he actually opposed the policy. Then, he stumbled into some nonsensical territory that stole the show on Twitter. “We discussed about this in San Francisco, it was all about, you know, gay bathhouses,” he mentioned. “It’s all about round the clock sex, it’s all … c’mon man!” It was eccentric, to mention the least.


South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg


In a touching speech, Buttigieg, the only out gay man running for president, discussed about discovering he was gay, deciding to reside in the closet, and eventually coming out. He also instructed them audience that he couldn’t give blood, not because of science, however because of prejudice. (Currently, men who have had sex with one or more other boys in the past 12 months are not allowed to donate.) “So as soon as I’m president, I will direct the FDA to revise the rules based on evidence and individual risk factors, and without regard to the prejudice that has driven the current policy,” Buttigieg said.


At the starting of Buttigieg’s time on stage, activist Bamby Salcedo and other protestors began chanting “trans folks are dying” and “trans lives matter,” before CNN security removed them from the venue. (At least 18 transgender females of color have been killed for now this year in the U.S.) CNN moderator Anderson Cooper used the moment to say: “Let me just point out that there really is a long and delighted tradition in history in the gay and lesbian and transgender public of protest and we applaud them for their protest. And so they are absolutely right to be mad and angry at the lack of attention, particularly in the media, on the lives of transgender…” before he was cut off again by a crowd member.


Sen. Elizabeth Warren


The Massachusetts Senator delivered one of the primary dunks of the night immediately after a crowd member said: “Let’s mention you’re on the campaign trail plus a contributor approaches you and says ‘Senator, I’m old fashioned, and my faith teaches me that marriage is between one man and one woman.’ What is your response?”


Warren said: “Well, I’m going to assume it’s a guy who mentioned that. And I’m going to mention, ‘Then just marry just one woman. I’m cool with that.’” The crowd applauded, and right after a moment, she added: “Assuming you could find one.”


She didn’t spend the full time delivering ethers, though. She admitted that she was wrong in 2012 if she mentioned she didn’t think it was “a good use of taxpayer dollars” to pay for a trans inmate’s gender-affirming surgery. “It was a bad answer,” she clarified on Thursday. “And I believe that each person is entitled to medical care and medical care they require. And that includes people who are transgender who [decide] it is the time for them to have gender-affirming surgery. I just think that’s important.”

Sen. Kamala Harris


The California senator spent her time on stage by saying she would tackle homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth. (According to the Williams Institute, 40 percent of the homeless youth served by corporations identify as LGBTQ+.) She also talked about ending the gay or trans panic defense, which is defined by the LGBT Bar as “a legal plan of action which asks a jury to find that a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for the defendant’s violent reaction, including murder.” That defense is only against the law in eight states.

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke


The former Texas representative mentioned he would end conversion therapy — the unfounded and harmful practice of trying to change an individual's sexual or gender identity — because it is “tantamount to torture.” (Thirty-one states and four territories have nevertheless to formally outlaw the practice with a state law or policy.) “As president, we'll seek to outlaw it everywhere in this country,” he said.


Blossom C. Brown, a Black trans woman, interrupted O’Rourke’s allotted half-hour to point out that not a solitary Black trans person had been allowed to ask a question.


“That’s what anti-Blackness looks like,” she mentioned, primarily to CNN moderator Don Lemon. “The erasure of Black trans people.”


Sen. Amy Klobuchar


The Minnesota Senator mentioned she would recognize 1/3 gender marker alternative on a federal level. Currently, only 12 states have the option. “I think that really there's a lot of work we need to do, all over the nation, with driver's licenses as you know, not every state has some of the provisions that California have in place and just work on a state-by-state basis to prepare those changes,” she said.


A tandem set of expenditures focused on curtailing sex trafficking — the Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) — was only brought up once while in the evening, and the question was pointed to Klobuchar by Ryan Basham, an executive and career coach.


“You sponsored the SESTA/FOSTA Act, which made it harder for sex workers to protect themselves online and harder for law enforcement to track potential criminals who may harm, kidnap, or maybe kill sex traffickers,” he instructed them senator. “I’m vice president of the Stonewall Democratic Club, which is the nation’s oldest LGBTQ feminist progressive political categorize, as well as a lot of our constituents are current and former sex workers. Several of those are people of color. Several of these are trans. Several of these are undocumented immigrants. So my question for you is, will you come out in favor of legalizing sex work and what are you going to do to counteract the negative impact this law has had?”


She said: “I am not in favor of decriminalizing all of sex work. I’m concerned about the effect that would have on young girls and violence against young women,” a response that several considered still erroneously conflated sex work and sex trafficking.


Former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro


Castro called for current HUD Secretary Ben Carson to resign from his post given that he has made disparaging remarks about transgender people. “The comments that Secretary Carson, my successor, made a few weeks prior are shameful. Any time you're Housing Secretary, you're there to serve everybody. And his comments made clear that he's not able to serve everybody,” Castro mentioned. “I believe that he should resign because of that, because he can't serve everybody.”


While in Castro’s time on stage, CNN host Nia-Malika Henderson mispronounced the name of singer/songwriter and Black trans woman Shea Diamond if she went to ask Castro a question. “It’s violence to misgender or to adjust the name of a trans person, so let’s routinely get that right first,” she mentioned. She asked if Castro would have Black trans ladies advising his administration, and he mentioned they would have a voice if he was elected.


Businessman Tom Steyer


Steyer focused on increasing oversight on health care access to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. "I think it's absolutely essential for the United States of America to treat people in a humane and decent fashion,” he mentioned. “It's very obvious that this President and this administration has chosen to not only break the international laws in their treatment of asylum seekers nevertheless to break the generic laws of humanity.”