HRCF Releases 2024 Climate Report

On Tuesday the The Human Rights Campaign Foundation released its annual 2024 HRCF LGBTQ+ Climate Survey report, finding that LGBTQ+ Americans remain the most politically engaged group in the country.
The report found that 95.7 percent of LGBTQ+ adults are registered to vote, compared to 69.1 percent of U.S. adults.

This is higher than any other demographic, anywhere, even beating D.C.’s 86.9 percent (according to Census data).

93.2 percent of LGBTQ+ voters expressed some motivation to vote in November, with 73 percent saying they are highly motivated. They said they prefer Kamala Harris to Donald Trump by a nearly 67 point margin (74 percent to 7.5 percent).

92.1 percent said they’ve seen, read, or heard about Project 2025 at least somewhat — with 34.6 saying “a lot.” Of those, 93.7 percent view it unfavorably — 87 percent very unfavorably.

For comparison, a recent Navigator poll found that more than half of Americans still know little or nothing about Project 2025, including more than two-thirds of Republican and Republican-leaning voters.
Perhaps most notably, the report found that 95.4 percent of eligible LGBTQ+ Gen Z voters (age 18-27) are registered, compared to just 59.4 percent of eligible Gen Z voters nationwide.

Washington Blade Makes History

The D.C.-based LGBTQ+ newspaper The Washington Blade, which has been in weekly circulation since 1969, sat down with President Joe Biden late last week, in the first exclusive Oval Office interview ever made by an LGBTQ+ publication.

Biden expressed pride for his role in the advancement of LGBTQ+ equality during his time as President and Vice President, celebrated the courage of LGBTQ+ Americans, remarked on the current political climate, and credited his father with his openness to LGBTQ+ individuals from an early age.

“My dad used to say that everyone’s entitled to be treated with dignity,” Biden said to The Blade, a story familiar to many about a time his father saw him respond with shock at the sight of two men kissing. “Joey, it’s simple. They love each other.”

Read the full interview and story at tinyurl.com/FCNP0924wb.

Not Their Preferences, But Their Actions

My grandfather is a few years older than President Biden, and he’s told a similar story ever since I came out. When he was growing up, he said, his father would tell them, “Don’t judge people by their preferences. Judge them by their actions.”

I’ve heard these stories throughout my life, from older men and women whom I’ve spoken to in various settings, from various walks of life. Even back then, some people knew that we were all just living our own normal lives. The most enlightened people I’ve met see very little daylight between the hate of the past and the hate of the present.

The plainly bigoted language — tropes about immigrants eating pets, or mispronouncing Kamala, or saying “she wants to do Transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison” — is being used on purpose, cynically, by the GOP. Not because they believe them, but because they cause harm nonetheless.

Words have consequences. At least 33 separate bomb threats have been made to schools, city hall, and state offices in Springfield, OH in the last week, causing evacuations and closures. Dozens of Ohio State Police are now stationed in Springfield schools, with a bomb-sniffing dog available around-the-clock.

The city’s annual Culture-Fest, which was scheduled to begin September 27, has been called off. Some colleges are holding virtual classes all week.

This is only because Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, with no evidence, repeated racist tropes about Haitian immigrants, who came here legally, eating neighborhood pets.

Police, the Mayor, and other officials in the City of Springfield have repeatedly said that there are absolutely no — zero — credible reports of Haitian immigrants harming, abducting, or eating pets.

“There’s a lot of garbage on the internet,” said Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, “and, you know, this is a piece of garbage that was completely not true. There’s no evidence of this at all.”

“Whatever some local mayor said about this case, I am hearing from dozens of constituents who are concerned about these issues,” J.D. Vance responded in an interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

In the ten days since Donald Trump first made the claim, Vance and Trump have yet to produce a single constituent with a claim.

We All Know How To Be Better

Respect people’s differences. Don’t judge a book by its cover. A tree is known by its fruit. Treat others how you’d want to be treated. These are the “salt of the earth” values that we all share as Americans, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on.

From the very beginning, this country has — despite our own embattled, problematic, hypocritical past — thrived because of our foundational values of freedom, equality, and ethics.

Let’s double-down on those.